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DAVID DICKSON'S 

SYSTEM 



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FARMING 



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DAVID DICKSON'S 
SYSTEM 



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FARMING 



Published by 
THE CULTIVATOR PUBLISHING CO.. 

Atlanta, Georgia. 



LIBRARY o< CONGRESS 
Two Conies Received 

AUa 18 1906 

Copy ne tit tntry 
CLASjr Ci XKc, No, 

/s 3 ^7f 

' COPY B. ' 



Copyrighted 1906 by 

THE CULTIVATOR PUBLISHING CO. 

Atlanta, Ga. 



INDEX 

PAGE. 

Tntrofluction — (David Dickson, his Great and Wonderful Suc- 
cess as a Farmer) 5 

Agriculture as an Applied Science 10 

Teaching Lal)or to be ]More Effective 12 

Importance of Informing your Minds 14 

Chapter I., The Farm 16 

Chapter II., General Treatment of Lands 18 

Chapter III., Fertilization of Soils and Crops 21 

Chapter IV., Organic and Inorganic Manures 28 

Chapter Y., Breaking Lands 34 

Chapter VL, Cultivation of Crops 38 

Chapter YIL, Cultivation of Corn 41 

Chapter VIIL, Cultivation of Cotton 45 

Chapter IX., Growing Wheat 52 

Chapter X., Potatoes. Turnips" and Vegetables, (two-field 

system) 55 

Chapter XL. Fruit Culture and Care of Stock 50^ 

Chapter XIL. On Immigration 65 

Chapter XIIL. Best Extracts from the Writings of 

Dickson 73 



DAVID DICKSON 



His Great and Wonderful Success as a Farmer. 



INTRODUCTION 



Mr. Dickson was reared on a farm, 
and while yet a plough-boy, conceived 
the principles of agriculture that now 
distinguish the system of farming 
which has immortalized his name, 
and brought him not only fame but 
fortune. While ploughing and hoeing 
corn, in his boyhood, it occurred to 
him that that method of cultivating 
was wrong. He says, "while plough- 
ing — cutting the roots of plants — I 
could see the effect of hot days be- 
hind me in less, than thirty minutes, 
and it would continue for days to 
damage the crops, more or less, ac- 
cording to after seasons. Even with 
the hoe, digging round the corn, and 
hilling up, I could see the corn wilt at 
once, in hot and dry weather; and the 
corn would fire more or less, and 
sometimes be thus prevented from 
silking well. How was this to be pre- 
vented? I formed my opinion then, 
and put it in practice as soon as I 
commenced planting." Again, he 
says, "I saw new land full of mpld, 
never baked, was always easily 
worked, and would stand a long 



drouth and a heavy wet spell. The 
conclusion was, to keep all land in the 
virgin state, as near as possible. How 
was this to be done?" 

The reader will notice that these ob- 
servations and inquiries struck at the 
very foundations of agriculture. His 
close duty to nature had detected a 
fundamental error, and his genius 
readily devised the remedy. 

When, years afterwards, Mr. Dick- 
son had determined to invest his all 
in farming, so strong was his faith in 
the truth of the convictions of his 
youth upon these agricultural sub- 
jects, that he adopted them in his 
practice, discarding the old stereotyped 
system of farming as erroneous. In 
developing the principle of his newly- 
conceived system, and reducing it to 
practice, he found that one prepara- 
tion of land was all-sufficient for each 
crop; that the lands would be im- 
proved, would produce double the crop 
per acre; and that a hand could culti- 
vate fifty per cent, more acres, and 
obtain more than five times the usual 
dividends. 



INTRODUCTION. 



At twenty-one years of age, Mr. 
Dickson started out with $1,200. By 
merchandising and trading, lie made 
$2.5,000 in fourteen years. At this 
period (1845) he invested all his means 
in lands, negroes, stock and agricul- 
tural utensils, and commenced farm- 
ing. He purchased two hundred and 
sixty-six acres of land, for which he 
paid from $1 to $2 per acre, and for 
some as low as 50 cents per acre. 
Lands, under his system and success, 
continued to rise in price until 1860, 
when he paid .$18 per acre for the last. 
The average $7 per acre. This land 
had been producing four bushels of 
corn per acre, and two hundred pounds 
of seed cotton. On beginning to 
plant he followed his own peculiar 
notions, putting in practice the concep- 
tions of his boyhood; and these con- 
stitute the guiding principles of the 
Dickson system of farming to-day. 
These early impressions have been 
verified by experience, and thoroughly 
demonstrated by successful results. 
He says his crops were fine from the 
very first, and that he never failed to 
make a good average crop, no matter 
what the season. 

The reader will observe, that Mr. 
Dickson's first crop was, a success; 
and that, at that time, guano had not 
been introduced. This fact tends to 
correct the impression that Mr. D's 
success in farming has been attributa- 
ble alone to the liberal use of "am- 
monia" — in other words, to the em- 
ployment of guanos. We know that 
he did not use much guano until 1857. 
Yet his crops were "fine" and paid 
good dividends! What does this 
show? Clearly, that most of his suc- 
cess as a farmer has been due to his 
peculiar method of treating his lands, 
and cultivating his crops, and not ma- 
terially to his feeding his lands with 
ammonia, superphosphate, potash, 
land plaster and salt. The principle'=' 
of cultivation, in his system, are es- 
sentially different from the popular 
system of agriculture, and to this sys- 
tem, as a whole, conjoined with Mr. 
Dickson's native genius and extraordi- 
nary executive ability must we at- 
tribute his success. Peruvian guano, 



or even "Dickson's Compound," 
used according to the common 
plan of farming, would not pro- 
duce half such results. The 
"magic" is to be found in the way it 
is used, and the general policy of 
treating and cultivating the lands. 
It is a great mistake to say, that guano 
has made Mr. Dickson. The fact is, 
Mr. Dickson helped to make the guano 
market. Native genius, good judg- 
ment, his study of nature and her laws, 
and their application to agriculture, 
have made Mr. Dickson. True, guano 
has been a potent agency in his hand, 
but it has paid better with him than 
it has with nine-tenths of the planters, 
because he has used it in accordance 
with the principles of rational agri- 
culture. But the liberal use of ferti- 
lizers constitutes an important in- 
gredient in his system of farming. 
Guano has paid him, while it has 
proved worthless with many who have 
not employed it with a proper system 
of cultivation. Mr. Dickson's system 
must be taken as a whole, and in cal- 
culating his results, guano must come 
in only for a part of the credit. Mr. 
Dickson had planted nine years before 
he used guano to its full extent, (200 
to 250 pounds to the acre), and yet 
his crops were good. 

In 1846, the second year of Mr. Dick- 
son's planting, he made his first trial 
of guano. "I saw," he says, "an ad- 
vertisement in the 'American Farmer,' 
Baltimore, of the wonderful effects 
of Peruvian guano. I procured three 
sacks, and used it, and finding it paid, 
used it in increased quantities, till 1855 
or 1856, and then went in to it fully." 
Very soon after this Mr. Dickson com- 
menced having bones prepared with 
acid, according to English farming, 
furnishing what we now use as "dis- 
solved bones." This he combined 
with Peruvian p;uano, and ultimately 
he added land plaster, salt and potash. 
This combination was a result of a 
great deal of experimenting with all 
kinds of guanos, and, as the reader 
knows, it is now his favorite "com- 
pound." 

The reader will notice subsequently 



INTRODUCTION. 



an experiment with this compound and 
the result. With $17 worth per acre, 
the crop was three thousand pounds 
per acre the field over, equivalent to 
two bales, which, at the market value 
at that time, was worth $250. A part 
of this tract produced 6,000 pounds 
seed cotton per acre. 

Again, there will be found an experi- 
ment showing the great advantages of 
using the whole compound — the bene- 
ficial effect of the addition of land 
plaster and salt to Peruvian guano 
and dissolved bones. This formula 
was produced by Mr. Dickson, and was 
the result of a vast amount of experi- 
menting with all kinds of guano, and 
which is as near perfect as manure 
can be made. 

With this mixture, together with 
his improved system of farming, Mr. 
Dickson has produced those "fabu- 
lous" results with which he is accred- 
ited. Before the war, his crops aver- 
aged him from ten to fourteen bales 
cotton per hand, and nearly one bale 
per acre, besides an abundance of 
corn, fodder, bacon, etc. He raised 
enough bacon and grain to pay for two- 
thirds of his guano. He cultivated 
and gathered fifty acres to the hand — 
lGy2 in cotton, 16i/^ in corn, and lei/L- 
in small grain, or as near that division 
as practicable. Such was his economy 
of labor, and his system of manage- 
ment, that a visitor might ride through 
his farm, without seeing a weed or a 
bunch of grass in his crop. His hands 
would gather — some of them three 
bales of cotton per week, and many of 
them two bales, during the favorable 
part of the season. Corn and fodder 
were always stored around him in 
abundance. I have seen much of his 
crop for the last three years, and have 
not seen many acres in any of these 
crops that I estimated at less than one 
hale to the acre. True, the crops 
that I saw were on the best part of 
his farm, and received the most of his 
attention. I saw a field of his last fall 
planted in .Tune, that had fourteen 
hundred pounds cotton to the acre. 
Mr. Dickson says, that last year (1869) 
was the dryest and hottest year he 
ever saw; that he had but one rain 
during the summer, and that in Au- 
gust. And yet he made a good average 



crop. I saw his crop in November, 
and consequently know what I say. 
He made last year — that is, all his 
tenants, black and white — between 
seven and eight hundred bales of cot- 
ton. These facts verify what Mr. 
Dickson claims for his system of farm- 
ing — that good crops can be made 
with the least rain that can fall any 
summer, and that if the work is prop- 
erly and thoroughly done, there need 
be no such thing as a failure. The 
many reports made by visitors and 
correspondents, as to Mr. Dickson's 
crops, are substantially true. He has 
had unprecedented success during his 
whole farming career, without a single 
failure, and still sustains his reputa- 
tion, by producing larger and still 
larger crops. He has no successful 
rival as a planter; and it may truly 
be said of him, "he stands at the head 
of his profession." 

He once bought a plantation, with 
the negroes, stock and every thing on 
it, and paid for the whole with one 
crop. He did not visit the place but 
once a month, had the same number 
of hands and paid all charges. In 
1859, Mr. Dickson, with fifty-six hands, 
made and gathered six hundred and 
sixty-seven bales of cotton, besides 
one hundred dollars' worth per hand 
of bacon, corn, etc. 

So successful was Mr. Dickson in 
making money by farming, that his lit- 
tle plantation of two hundred and six- 
ty-six acres rapidly extended its area, 
and now, in the language of a corre- 
spondent, "he owns the domain of a 
prince." When the war began, his 
property was worth, by fair estimate 
$500,000, clear of all encumbrance. 
This he had made in fifteen years by 
farming, with a capital of $25,000 to 
start with. Not a dollar had been 
made outside of his farm. Here is a 
striking contrast between the profits 
of trade and merchandise and farming. 
It took him fourteen years at a trade 
(o make $25,000; but during the fifteen 
years succeeding, he accumulated 
$500,000 by farming — not counting 
four hundred bales of cotton, and a 
large supply of bacon, and grain, given 
to the Confederate Government, and 
burnt by Sherman in 1864. He deliv- 
ered to the Confederate Government 
four hundred bales of cotton, for 



8 



INTRODUCTION. 



which he got bonds which were never 
paid; and after the first year of the 
war he planted no cotton, but raised 
provisions for the army, and for most 
of which he received no pay, not even 
in Confederate money. General Sher- 
man burned four hundred bales of cot- 
ton, took all his stock, and a large 
amount of provisions. He owned two 
hundred and fifty (250) select negroes, 
which were worth fifty per cent, more 
than the average of negroes. 

Since the war, Mr. Dickson has 
been planting cautiously, "not caring 
to save money till we had a Govern- 
ment that would protect us in person 
and in property." He sayp his crops 
have been fair, but his dividends less 
than before the war, because of bad 
labor, stealage, killing stock, etc. He 
is now working on the tenant system, 
and is again making his nine hundred 
bales of cotton, including his Texas 
crop, and declaring good dividends. 
He uses the "Compound" exclusively 
for all crops, and plants the "Dickson 
Cotton." He owns thirty thousand 
acres of land, and a good deal of rail- 
road and company stock, besides his 
plantation stock, farming implements, 
etc., amounting in the aggregate, to not 
much less than half-million dollars. 
Add to this amount, his losses from 
the war, and the emancipation of his 
slaves, which he says were "worth 
$300,000," and the reader can approxi- 
mate what would have been Mr. Dick- 
son's wealth, as the profits of twenty- 
five years' farming, on a capital of 
twenty-five thousand dollars — losing 
near five years of this time, for dur- 
ing the war he planted no cotton, but 
raised provision crops for the Govern- 
.ment. 

Estimating all these losses, who can 
say that Mr. Dickson would not have 
been worth to-day, one million dollars, 
but for that unfortunate war, that 
swept away his earnings? 

Mr. Dickson has always lived well, 
entertaining a great deal of company 
in sumptuous style, and allowed him- 
self every comfort and luxury that 
heart could desire. He has devoted 
more than half his time, since he has 
been farming, to his visiting friends, 
who, attracted by his fame as a 
planter, came from all parts of the 
United States to see his farm, and 



obtain information in regard to his 
system of agriculture. He has rid- 
den with them thousands of miles 
and through all kinds of weather and 
written and read no telling how many 
wagon loads of letters, besides his con- 
tributions to the agricultural journals. 
Having an innate fondness for agri- 
culture, Mr. Dickson gave himself to 
its study with all the zeal of a devotee, 
and would have given it "all the ener- 
gies of his intellect," but for the diver- 
sion occasioned by constant interrup- 
tion and taxes upon his time. In esti- 
mating the sum total of his success in 
his agricultural pursuits, a large sum 
must be placed to his credit for this 
loss of time. For many years past, 
not a mail, perhaps, that does not 
bring him from a dozen to several 
dozen letters, to be read and answered 
on the subject of agriculture. True, 
he is delighted to see them come, and 
often invites company; yet, the atten- 
tions thus necessarily devoted, occa- 
sion neglect of his business, and les- 
sen his products. 

Very many persons think that Mr. 
Dickson's reports as to large crops, 
are taken from his fancy brag patches, 
and that his general crop does not cor- 
respond. This is uncharitable, as well 
as untrue. He claims credit for his 
general results — so much corn and 
cotton per hand. Like a general in 
the aimy, he operates from his head- 
quarters at home. His farm consists 
of many little farms, which he seldom 
visits. He furnishes the implements 
and material, and gives direction; but 
the executio:^ of the work is entrusted 
entirely to the laborers, having no 
overseers or superintendents; nor did 
he ever, have an occasion even in sla- 
very times, except on one place. It is 
evident, then, that Mr. Dickson's suc- 
cess has been attributable to the ad- 
vantage of his system of farming, to- 
gether with his general policy and 
management. He has been richly re- 
warded for his zeal and research in 
the study of agriculture; and the rea- 
son that so few people approach him 
in his results is, they do not follow his 
teachings, or his practice. Success 
depends upon the adoption of his sys- 
tem as a whole. Guano alone is not 
the "potent charm"; neither is deep 



INTRODUCTION. 



breaking of land, or subsoiling, or sur- 
face culture, or rotation of crops; but 
all these agencies must be taken in 
combination. Tlie neglect of one may 
paralyze the whole. This system is 
drawn fi'om the study of nature's laws, 
and not one of its precepts may be 
safely violated. Many who undertake 
to follow the Dickson plan of farming, 
do it only in part, and consequently 
the failure. Its beauty and strength 
consists in the union of its parts. Ad- 
here rigidly to the principle, and carry 
out in practice. Study it as a system 
— as a whole. Execute it with tact 
and judgment, and confidently expect 
results approaching the success that 
has rewarded the labors of Mr. Dick- 
son. 

The dividends of stocks constitute 
the true test of their value — so the 
crops, and clear profits, are the tests, 
and indicate the practical value of any 
system of farming. Is it not wonder- 



ful — not to say incredible, that in the 
poorest parts of Hancock County, Ga., 
a man can take $25,000, and double it 
twenty times in fifteen years? And 
yet it is true with Mr. Dickson. He 
has done that, and during the time 
has used, for his own household ex- 
penses, during the whole time, fully 
seven per cent, on the $25,000; and 
has not Invested a dollar in trade or 
any speculation during the time! The 
people of Hancock County will vouch 
for the truth t)f this statement. I 
state these facts that they may en- 
courage young men to effort and en- 
terprise, and demonstrate to them that 
farming, as a vocation, can be made 
lucrative; for it is certainly true, 
what has been accomplished by one 
may be accomplished again by others! 
Mr. Dickson's success as a farmer 
seems really beyond comprehension. 
Editor of Cultivator. 




Peruvian Guano on the Left and Ordinary Guano on tiie Right. 



Agriculture as an Applied Science 



BY 



DAVID DICKSON 



Agricultural science comprises a 
knowledge of soils, their general prop- 
erties, class and chemical composi- 
tion; also the natural history of 
plants, their habits, wants, physiology 
of assimilation, growth, reproduction, 
etc. It also involves the study of the 
atmospheric air and water, the two 
great vitalizing elements of both ani- 
mal and vegetable life. These with 
the natural laws governing these ele- 
ments, and their mutual relations and 
influences in the growth of crops, con- 
stitute the basis of agricultural sci- 
ence and practical familiarity with 
all these subjects, as applied to farm- 
ing, are necessarily essential to intel- 
ligent agriculture. 

How can the cultivator be expected 
to know the importance of breaking, 
subsoiling and cultivating lands for 
the production of crops when he 
knows nothing as to the chemical com- 
position of the air, and the vitalizing 
effects it has upon ^.rowing crops? 
How could he conceive of the impor- 
tance of husbanding the spring rains, 
and storing away a bountiful supply 
for the summer crops without the 
knowledge of the chemical and ma- 
terial value of rain-water in bringing 
to the soil ammonia, carbonic acid, 
and other fertilizing gasses from the 
atmosphere, and its active agency in 
dissolving the organic and mineral 
substances of the soil, and thus mak- 
ing them assimilable as plant food? 
Rains are not alone important for 
moistening and softening and mellow- 
ing the soil so as to allow the crop 



roots to readily traverse and pene- 
trate, but equally important in a chem- 
ical and philosophical sense. Hence, 
agricultural science teaches the prac- 
tical importance of deep, mellow soil, 
calculated to hold and retain suffi- 
ciency of moisture for the crops during 
their season of growth and maturity. 
Upon the same basis must be placed 
the application of manures to soils 
and fertilizers to crops. How can the 
farmer intelligently compost his ma- 
nures, or select fertilizers for his 
crops, when he knows nothing as to 
the chemical composition of soil, or 
the or-ganic constittients of crops to be 
grown tipon it, and hence knows not 
the chemical wants of his crop? If the 
cultivator knows nothing as to the 
design of nature in putting forth roots 
and fibrils to every plant, how can he 
be expected to intelligently decide as 
to comparative benefit or injury re- 
sulting from deep or shallow culture? 
How can he, calculate the extent of 
damage he is doing his growing crops 
by rudely invading the soil that has 
been allotted to them, and cutting off 
the roots — through which, alone, the 
crops reach and utilize the soil for 
support and growth? He knows not 
that he is violating the laws of nature 
by interrupting a process which na- 
ture has instinctively designed for the 
benefit of this growing plant? 

Science teaches what are the real 
objects of cultivation. Destroying the 
grass an'd weeds, and thus saving the 
entire strength of the soil for the 
planted crop, and so breaking the sur- 



AGRICULTTTRE AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE. 



11 



face, soil as to admit the atmospheric 
air in the soil beneath, as a nutrient 
and vitalizer. Deep culture, also ef- 
fects both of these objects, but no more 
efficiently than the sweep culture, and 
with the decided disadvantage of tear- 
ing off the plant-roots, and thus depriv- 
ing the crops of their main agents and 
source of support, which stuns and 
cripples the plants and absolutely foils 
the designs of nature, and seriously in- 
jures instead of benefiting the crop. 
Nature does no superfluous work. She 
puts forth to her plants no supernu- 
merary root or rootlet, not absolutely 
needed by the plant for its growth and 
development. Hence, by deep cul- 
ture and root-cutting we violate the 
laws of nature. Science clearly 
teaches its agriculturist the impoi-- 
tance of strictly conforming to and 
fostering the designs of nature, and it 
plainly teaches the policy of conserv- 
ing and utilizing not only the shower 
and the sunshine, but every available 
element and agency. 

By the teachings of agricultural 
science, the planter can intelligently 
compost his manure heaps, and select 
his fertilizers for his several crops, ac- 
cording to the soil he cultivates; and 
such discriminate selection is not only 
important to the growth of the weed, 
but to the final development aad fruit- 
age of the crop. It points out rational 
methods of culture, and general treat- 
ment of each individual crop, by fur- 
nishing from its natural history the 
special and peculiar nature and devel- 
opment of each individual class of 
crops. For instance, cotton is shown 
to be a sun plant, and especially 
adapted to a certain latitude, where it 
grows and matures more perfectly and 
is comparatively exempt from pests 
and . casualties. This favorite belt 
is known to be in latitude 30 to 
34 degrees. The evidence of its being 
a sun plant is seen in the fact that, as 
soon as the sun rises, the cotton plant 
holds out the broadest surfaces of its 
leaves to the sun, and continues grow- 
ing till killed by the frost. Its habit 
is to elaborate the food, return it to 
the squares and bolls, and thus mature 
the fruit rapidly so as to escape 
the worm and frost. Science also 
teaches from this same peculiar habit 



of cotton, that, to mature the greatest 
quantity of it before the frost comes, 
or other casualties attack it, it must 
be planted thickly in the drill, in order 
that the fruitage may be hastened. 

From the same teachings, corn is 
known to be an annual, delighting in a 
latitude higher than cotton; and that 
the higher the latitude in which it will 
■certainly mature, the larger the yield 
per acre — everything else being equal. 
Unlike cotton, it begins elaborating 
substances for the grain at once, and 
returns it to the storehouse in the 
center of the stalk to be brought out 
at the proper time of shooting and 
maturing the ear. 

Tliis point of natural history teaches 
us to give the stalks good distance in- 
stead of planting it thick as we do 
cotton. If there should not be enough 
soluble matter for two stalks the re- 
sult would be no ear, or a very small 
nubbin. If there be only one stalk 
left, and there be enough soluble 
matter in the place allotted to that 
stalk to make two ears, the one stalk 
will absorb and appropriate it all 
and even more, and the one stalk 
will make from two to four ears 
of corn. Another important scien- 
tific fact connected with corn culture 
is that, whe.n given good distance 
— so many square yards to each stalk 
— it will make a larger crop in a dry 
year; and, if seasonable, a single stalk 
will always be double-eared, provided 
the soil be fertile and in good heart. 
The higher the latitude, the thicker the 
corn may be planted, but even then it 
can be over seeded: such facts indi- 
cate, and experience has determined 
what should be the distance given this 
crop; never to exceed a stated number 
of ears to the bushel the land ought to 
make. 

As thus seen, agricultural science is 
based entirely upon natural laws. From 
nine-tenths to nineteen-twentioths 
of all the substances that sustain ani- 
mal and vegetable life, and build up 
bodies, come from the atmosphere; and 
hence the lesson taught us by science, 
to so treat, prepare and cultivate lands 
as to utilize this element to the great- 
est possible extent for the benefit of 
growing crops. The more or less effi- 
cient execution of these lessons of 
•science, as ai)plied to the treatment 



12 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



and keeping up of lands, the recupera- 
tion of exhausted and the enrichment 
of poor and unproductive lands, will 
constitute the triumph of science, al- 
lied with administrative genius, in at- 
taining results worthy the name of suc- 
cessful farming. 

The great object of study and prac- 
tice is to know how to utilize the at- 
mosphere, and to work up the manures 
into the soil. We have but few text- 
books on this subject. We have to be- 
gin almost at the beginning. When 
these subjects are reduced to practice, 
and written out in the form of text- 
books, the study of agriculture as a 
science will be comparatively an easy 
one; but under no circumstances will 
the work ever be performed with 
success unless with preparation by the 
planter, and study of all the laws, prac- 
tices and arts, times and mode of cul- 
tivation. One object should be to uti- 
lize water, and to make the greatest 
yield from the least water; and there 
never has been a year when there was 
not water enough to make fair crops, 
provided the cultivation was done with 
care and science. I believe the culti- 
vation of corn can be carried to such a 
point, that you can make a full crop 
with two good seasons. 



TEACHING LABOR TO BE MORE 
EFFECTIVE. 

No system can prosper without 
teaching all the operatives and labor- 
ers to be experts, whether agricultu- 
ral or manufacturing, or anything that 
is done requiring labor. The first 
thing to do, in regard to any of the op- 
erations of labor, is to teach the labor- 
ers how to do it; the next thing, to do 
it with more ease and efficiency, and 
to learn to do better work every day. 
For instance, take a boll of cotton. 
They must be taught, with the great- 
est speed, how to throw the hand into 
the boll, and pull out all of the cotton 
with one lick, not waiting to see 
whether any is left in the boll or not, 
always having in mind to strike but 
one lick at the boll, and as soon as 
that is done, to strike at another boll. 
I have, in five minutes, taught a hand 
to pick one hundred pounds more of 
cotton per day than he had picked on 



the previous day, and from that point 
he will continue to improve. The 
greatest efficiency I have obtained in 
hands picking cotton was eight hun- 
dred pounds — equal to more than three 
good bales a week. 

The same improvement can be made 
in other species of labor on the farm* 
One hand will plough so as to fatten 
his horse, doing a full, good day's, 
work; while another hand will do in- 
ferior work, hardly so much as the 
other hand, and reduce his horse to 
poverty. A hand using a sweep or 
plough, can arrive at such efficiency, 
that he can do the ploughing and hoe- 
ing and go his sixteen and two-third 
miles per day, which is a day's work. 
This is my practice, not having to put 
a hoe in the corn field, and having had 
the cleanest crops in the neighbor- 
hood. 

The same efficiency may be acquired 
with the axe. Quick motion; throw 
the axe with the proper spring and 
line, so as to go precisely to the line, 
with a sleight that will knock out the 
chip. 

The same thing with the maul and 
wedge. One man will make rails with 
less than half the labor another does. 
If a laborer will watch these experts, 
and do as they do, he will effect the 
same results. 

With the hoe, some hands will chop 
and motion a dozen times at a bunch 
of grass; an expert will keep his hoe 
sharp, and pull it through the row, 
leaving everything clean behind, and 
can strike to the sixteenth of an inch 
any time of the place he wishes. 

The same thing is true of the hewer 
using a broad-axe. One will strike a 
dozen licks to get to the line, the last 
one will probably go through the line 
into the timber. The expert, with, his 
improved eye and motions, strikes to a 
hair's breadth the first lick of where the 
line should be, and carries it equally 
through to the bottom of the timber, 
doing from two to three times the 
work per day as the botch. 

Still more true is it when you set ex- 
perts to manufacturing, making shoes, 
or tending machinery of any kind. One 
operative in a factory will draw three 
or four threads while another will 



TEACHING LABOR. 



13 



draw only one, or will attend to four 
loonas while another will attend to but 
two. 

There is a great difference also with 
wagoners, one requiring double the 
time to gear his team that another 
does, fumbling around his team, hunt- 
ing up things to do, and so losing two 
or three loads on the plantation in a 
day with a six-horse team, and losing 
enough to pay for three experts per 
day. 

The same improvements may be 
made in art and execution in using 
plantation machinery and gearing that 
can be made in any other profession 
and art. 

During last year, I learned some val- 
uable new lessons. One was the 
training of hands to do double the 
amount of work, with more ease, and 
less of sweat and muscle. My former 
hands, being better trained than oth- 
ers, had better offers than I could give, 
and nine-tenths of them left me. I 
then employed hands from as many as 
forty plantations, and got none that_ 
knew how to work to any advantage. 
I had hands before the war that could 
pick eight hundred poimds of cotton in 
a day, all by daylight; and all hands 
that went to the fields averaged three 
hundred pounds per day, without any 
white man in the field. 

In my system of deep preparation, 
thorough manuring, and surface cul- 
ture, the results depend altogether on 
the time and judgment when to work, 
where to work, and the style of the 
work. To be successful, and to pay 
dividends, you must do the greatest 
quantity of the work with the least la- 
bor. That art is acquired by studying 
practice. To attain it, you must ap- 
proach the perfectness of a juggler, or 
sleight-of-hand man. With a peculiar 
sleight, one man will throw an axe into 
a piece of timber, with half the force 
of another, and with the same or bet- 
ter result. It is absolutely necessary 
to come to time. All the operations 
should move at once; this is just as es- 
sential as it is for a team of mules in a 
wagon. To perform all these things 
successfully, you must have absolute 
control over the laborer. Every far- 
mer should teach this art to his labor- 
ers. If the farm hands on one planta- 



tion only leani this, they will always 
be offered inducements by other plan- 
ters to leave. The hands on the place 
should be taught to do every kind of 
work with facility and ease. Nothing 
pays so well in hoeing as to get every 
bunch of grass. Taking up a bunch 
of grass injures a crop of cotton equal 
to bad ploughing, if not perfectly 
done. 

The science of agriculture is soon 
learned, and is of incalculable impor- 
tance; but nothing to compare with 
the execution of details. Many of the 
Confederate generals of the late war 
had the same military education and 
book training as General Lee; but none 
of them came near executing as he did. 
Two planters may have the same 
knowledge of planting, while in execu- 
ting, one will get rich, and the other 
break, and thinking they were operat- 
ing upon the same system of farming. 

To enumerate, in brief, a few of the 
mottoes of success in farming, I would 
say: Always come to time, and keep a 
little ahead, and the work will be easy. 
Do the winter work in the winter, and 
the spring work in the spring, and do 
it well. Cultivate a little ahead of 
time. Gather as soon as crops are 
ready. The most important part is 
the judgment when to plant, and how 
and where to work, and with what 
tools, and what part of the crop to 
work. 

In hoeing, always have sharp hoes, 
and use only the force necessary to 
the particular object, raising the hoe 
only six to eight inches, and more 
licks can be made. Only get under 
the crown of the grass. Always be 
governed by natural laws and natural 
causes. The style and expertness of 
the work are no small things; and 
judgment in coming to time, and work- 
ing at the right place and in the right 
style of work, etc. 

Those who may presume to call my 
plan of farming a failure, either do not 
know it, or cannot execute it. The di- 
vidends of stocks are the true tests of 
their value. Crops and dividends are 
the true tests of any system of farm- 
ing. I would fain shrink from say- 
ing anything about my planting, but 
my practical success has been so 



14 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



beyond comprehension, and so known 
hj my Hancock friends, as induces 
me to report for the encouragement 
of all enterprising young farmers. Is 
it not hard to believe that in the 
poorest part of Hancock County, 
Georgia, a man can take $25,000 and 
double it twenty times in fifteen years? 
But it is true, and in the meantime, I 
have consumed at least seven per cent, 
of the capital for my family expenses. 

One of the most important things to 
learn is how to control labor and how 
to have your laborers in place, and all 
move together at once, doing the work 
the easiest way, but for the best effect. 

I am writing of old times. I teach 
all my hands fo be experts — to do the 
work better and faster than others. I 
never knew how little work other 
farmers got out of hands before the 
war. My old hands could do fifty per 
cent, more work and with more ease, 
than any I have ever employed since. 
Each one could do any kind of work 
done on the farm; the newcomers 
could do one or two kinds of work, 
and that not well. But some 
people can not believe that any- 
thing can be done which they can 
not do themselves. Dr. Lee once 
remarked of my farming, when on a 
visit, that "Mr. Dickson had demon- 
strated to men of small means, that 
not only a living could be made on 
poor land but a large fortune, and that 
as the great majority of land was poor, 
there was no calculating what might 
be done by careful study of the science 
of agriculture and the art of farming." 



IMPORTANCE OF INFORMING 

YOUR MINDS. 

Some men are born generals, some 
mechanics, some orators, some farm- 
ers; some adapted to one profession, 
and some to another; but the great 
mass of men have to read, study and 
practice, to become efficient in any 
calling they may select; and if they ap- 
ply themselves faithfully, and do not 
rise above mediocrity, they should quit 
that business and try some other. 
"WTiatever has been accomplished by 
man can be done again, and ought to 
be done better, with all the accumu- 
lated knowledge of the past before us. 



"What is book-farming? It does not 
mean to take a book in your hand and 
go to the field; but it means you should 
read and study everything that you 
can possibly bring to bear on farming, 
and store it away in your head. But 
be sure to master the subject, anc] 
learn the true plan. This is the 
science of agriculture. Study bad 
practice as well as good, and learn of 
the latter the errors, that you may a- 
void them. Read books until you be- 
come so perfect in theory and the use 
of tools and manure that you will have 
confidence and the nerve to act, and 
act at once — not lose time running a- 
bout to your neighbors, to see when to 
do a thing and how to do it. Do not 
let frost, or wet or dry weather cause 
you to doubt or dally. Fortify your- 
self with books before you begin — such 
books as will teach you everything 
necessary to your success; and do not 
forget that you can learn something 
from almost- every profession. 

Book farming means for the farmer, 
just what book-learning does for the 
physician. The medical student must 
read all the books and attend all the 
lectures, and the dissecting room, un- 
til he can pass, then take his medicine 
and instruments, go out to practice 
and test his knowledge. So with 
book farming. You must read and 
study, not only agricultural books, but 
all books that would apply in any way 
to that profession. 

You need the knowledge of a general 
to enable you to discipline your labor- 
ers to come to time — ^to move all at 
once — to know when to charge, when 
to retreat. You need the knowledge 
of a banker, when your money is made, 
to know how to invest it (and this is a 
very important point). You want the 
knowledge of a bookkeeper, that you 
may keep your accounts correctly. In 
this, many farmers fail — they fool 
themselves, not knowing how to keep 
their debtor and creditor accounts — 
get in debt and become bankrupts be- 
fore they are aware of it. You must 
have some knowledge of mechanics 
and machinery, or you will never know 
how to keep implements and machines 
in order or use them; and if the farmer 
is ignorant, how can he instruct the la- 
borer? You should even have a suf- 



INFORMING YOUR MINDS. 



15 



licieut knowledge of law to know how 
to keep out of the courts. You should 
have some knowledge of commerce 
and trade, for you have to buy and sell. 
Y''ou should learn from the merchant 
order and punctuality. This is no 
small item in a lifetime business. 

How is all this to be acquired? By 
reading- and hard study, and making 
an application of the knowledge ac- 
quired. Knowledge is power, in agri- 
culture as well as other things; and 
how are you to get knowledge? Only 
by reading, study, and application. 
With knowledge, you can use the hand 
as well as the tongue more effectively. 

You must learn the use of tools. A 
man that has a perfect use of tools, 
can do double the work one can who 
knows nothing about their use. Rail- 
roads and steamboats have brought 
men together, and have furnished a 
partial remedy for want of books. 

I would ask you, can you tell what 
the farmer is now gaining by the use 
of manures and by the knowledge re- 
ceived through agricultural papers? Or 
can you tell what is lost to Georgia by 
not taking the agricultural papers, and 
keeping up with the improvements of 
the day? By reading agricultural pa- 
pers, each farmer may learn and prac- 
tice all the improvements of every 
farmer in the State. Who would not 
subscribe and pay for an agricultural 
paper, for such a reward as that? 

No man has a right to put his light 
under a bushel. Farmers, come out, 
and let your lights shine! If you can 



not afford to give it away by contribu- 
ting to The Soutiiekx Cultivator, put 
it in book form and sell it. If you 
have improved tools, take out patents 
for them, and sell the rights, or give 
them to the public. 

Y'oung men, read, practice, and qual- 
ify yourselves for one of the noblest of 
callings. Do not commence where 
your fathers did, but where they are 
now, and where the best farmers in 
the State are, and being young, active 
and vigorous, make every effort to sur- 
pass the best. Be assured "there is 
much to learn yet. 

The three great essentials are: first 
the theory (true plan) of farming; sec- 
ond, the art of controlling labor, and 
executing all work to the best advan- 
tage with least labor; third (last and 
best), success depends on quick per- 
ception, wise judgment, that seldom or 
never errs. How is this to be acquired 
except by the use of books, in conjunc- 
tion with practice? 

In conclusion, I may say, to succeed, 
you not only must be superior to your 
laborers, but you must be so far ahead 
of them that they shall know that your 
plans are wise, easy to put in practice, 
and certain of success. Then they 
will follow in a charge, as good sol- 
diers will the best of generals. The 
laborer must have confidence in the 
man that directs. How are all these 
qualifications secured? I repeat, 
through books, hard study, observation 
and practice." 

DAVID DICKSON. 




CHAPTER I. 



The Farm. 



The farmer should select a farm of 
fertile soil, or soils capable of illimita- 
ble fertilization. It will not pay to 
cultivate poor or exhausted lands. If 
not productive, they must be made so 
by proper treatment. 

It has been clearly demonstrated 
that certain soils are especially 
adapted to certain crops. Corn will 
grow better and make better yields on 
certain classes of soil than on other 
and different soils. The same is true 
of cotton. One farm will successfully 
produce grain crops, while another 
grows cotton more profitably. 

The farm land and quality of soil 
should be selected in view of the crops 
proposed to be raised. For the 
growth of corn I would select a soil 
of black prairie, blue limestone, brown 
or mulatto soil with a moderate 
gravel; also, what is called strong 
land of the river bottom. 

I would prefer brown or mulatto 
land — with moderate gravel, for cot- 
ton. The subsoil should not be reten- 
tive of water, but should let the water 
percolate through, but not open enough 
to leach the land. From my observa- 
tion I find this kind of land more pro- 
ductive. I find such soil makes the 
stalks more bushy and prolific, and 
bear better through the season. The 
fruit comes thicker on the limbs, and 
there is less falling of squares. The 
most sandy lands may be profitably 
cultivated by sticking the particles of 
sand together with vesretahle mold; 
and it would be a si-eat addition to 



add muck or river mud, or any other 
substance that would measurably ad- 
here the sand, and make it dark 
enough to prevent reflection, and close 
enough to hold the water. Cotton 
can be cultivated on sand in this way. 
Sandy land, I consider the lowest 
grade, and the sandier the land the 
lower the grade. 

For wheat, I would take the very 
same soil as for cotton. Wheat will 
succeed better on the heavier lands 
than cotton. 

For oats, the same may be said. I 
do not think there is any particular 
difference between oat soils and wheat 
soils, but oats will errnw hptfer on low, 
flat lands than wheat. 

Wheat requires land that is better 
drained, either by natural or artifi- 
cial means. 

Rye will grow anywhere corn will, 
and do better on light or sandy soil 
than wheat or oats. 

The farm should, by actual or imag- 
inary lines, be laid off into divisions 
so as to be cultivated on the five-field 
system. 

I would have a permanent pasture. 
One field should rest, one field should 
have cotton, one corn, and one small 
grain. I would put in cotton after 
rest, corn after cotton, small grain af- 
ter corn, and rest after small grain. 
If you have only five fields and wish 
to keep up the vegetable mold to a de- 
sirable standard, sow peas after the 
crop is off, always using commercial 



THE FARM. 



17 



fertflizers as the most desirable in all 
kinds of farming. In using commer- 
cial fertilizers you should not over- 
look the point of saving home ma- 
nures. The more manures bought, 
the more home manures should be 
saved and applied to the farm. 

One of the objects in the system of 
rotation of crops recommended, is 
seen from the fact that all plants do 
not receive the same kind of material 
from the soil; one kind draws more 
phosphate and another more ammonia, 
and some draw very liftle of either. 
If you were to plant one kind of crop 
alone j'ou would soon exhaust the land 
of that particular kind of nutritive 
element required. I would let the 
land rest in order for it to accumulate 
vegetable mold, and to make it pro- 
duce more, annually, than it would 
without rest, and thus save labor. The 
vegetable mold would keep the land 
open and porous and soft so that the 
roots could penetrate through it. 

I would plant cotton after rest, be- 
cause the land is then in a better con- 
dition for the cotton, there being no 
corn stalks in the way, and less crab- 
grass, to obstruct its growth. Expe- 
rience has also shown that the land, 
when cultivated in cotton after rest, 
will produce a healthier weed, and 
will retain water better to keep guano 
soluble. The vegetable mold darkens 



the soil so that it will receive the heat 
better and keep it up better during the 
twenty-four hours. It does not throw 
the rellection of the sun back on the 
plants to burn and scorch them. The 
vegetable mold in the land from the 
rest is becoming soluble the year 
round, and during the growth of the 
crop, and when partially decayed it 
acts like a sponge in holding the water 
and letting it out gradually to the 
roots of the plants. If there 
should be a surplus of water, it 
leaves the land porous enough for the 
water to pass through into the sub- 
soil and prevent its damaging the 
crops. 

It is proved by experience that corn 
grows better after cotton than after 
any other plant, and that it is more 
easily cultivated. It makes heavier 
and sounder corn. Corn, when culti- 
vated on m.v system, leaves the land 
in a beautiful condition, and there is 
less labor necessary to prepare the 
land for small grain. The corn crop 
could be gathered in time for the 
small grain, while the cotton crop 
could not, and these are the only two 
summer crops. The reason that I pre- 
fer rest to succeed small grain is be- 
cause the land is then smooth, no open 
furrows to wash, and is covered with 
stubble and small grass to protect it. 




Waist-High Grain. 



CHAPTER II. 



General Treatment of Lands. 



Herein lies the main secret — the 
source of success or failure in all agri- 
cultural pursuits. As a single item or 
specification in my system of farming, 
I attach more real importance and 
practical value to the treatment of 
lands than to any other one subject 
connected with the study and practice 
of agriculture; and to my special at- 
tention to and method of treating my 
lands, do I, in a very important sense, 
attribute my aggregate successful re- 
sults as a farmer. It is a part — an 
essential component of my theory and 
plan of farming; and to dispense with 
its due consideration and practice, 
would simply amount to disparage- 
ment of success in the whole enter- 
prise. 

We have sketched the Farm, the 
adaptation of crops to soils; the quali- 
fication of the farmer for planning 
and executing the work, and the im- 
portance of framing his operations 
upon rational and scientific bases; 
and we come now to the ground-work 
— the gi-and basis of permanent and 
aggregate success in all farming. 

There is no point or step co-equal 
in Importance, in view of successful 
farming, with that of proper and con- 
servative treatment of lands. , It con- 
stitutes the mainspring, — the essential 
policy in all farming. It is the first 
lesson for the planter to learn, and 
an imperative duty that he may not, 
with impunity, neglect — to keep his 
lands tillable — in good healthy state 
for cultivation. 



In common routine farming, the 
treatment of lands, to the end of im- 
proving or even keeping them up to 
a healthy standard — is most wofully 
neglected, or misdirected through 
want of scientific guidance. To cul- 
tivate poor land is folly. It can not 
pay. If not rich, it must be made 
fertile; and if it be rich, it must, by 
proper treatment, be kept in good 
heart, and constantly improved in fer- 
tility. It must not, by neglect or mis- 
management or by botchery, be per- 
mitted to run down and exhaust it- 
self, as is too true of a very large 
acreage of the lands of Georgia and 
the South, which are now refusing to 
produce paying ci'ops — and purely for 
the want of conservative and scientific 
treatment. 

There are just as many ways to 
preserve and improve land as to waste 
it; and by close economy and indus- 
try, you can gather the fertilizing ele- 
ments much fast;pr than they are 
wasted by the crops. Nature helps 
to waste, and helps to return. The 
rains leach and wash away fertility, 
while plants and evaporation from the 
sea, return it to some extent, to the 
land. Hence, let everything made on 
the farm, after it is used or eaten, 
except the lint of cotton — which takes 
away nothing from the soil, be re- 
turned to the land. In addition, 
gather muck, scrapings of swamps, 
leaves and pine-straw, and carry to the 
nearest field, and scatter broadcast. 
Don't be afraid of mud and pine-straw 



GENERAL TREATMENT OF LANDS. 



19 



hurting your land — heat and moisture 
will make it right. All vegetable mat- 
ter placed on your fields, will, in due 
time, turn to corn and cotton. Handle 
manure as little as possible but han- 
dle a great deal of it. The field is 
the place to make it, the plough to 
stir it, and the sun and water to turn 
it into corn and cotton. But before 
putting it on your fields in this way, 
use enough muck and straw in your 
stock-yards to absorb the ammonia of 
the stock drippings, and take up the 
urine, and have as much of this saved 
— under shelter — as possible. Once a 
week sprinkle it with plaster. Do not 
handle it or pile it. The first time 
you stick your fork in it, pitch it in 
the wagon and carry it to the field. 
Make every lick count. Manure loses 
every time it is turned or moved. Let 
all your spare time be spent in gath- 
ering new lots of manure. Carry to 
the nearest field at once, but not to 
the lot to get twice as heavy by the 
addition of water. 

I prefer this diffuse and economical 
method of applying this valuable class 
of manures, to that of raking and 
shoveling and loading and carrying to 
the compost heap — and then penning 
and sheltering, and then again tearing 
down, loading and hauling to the field. 
Let it lie under the shelter till break- 
ing or planting time and haul immedi- 
ately to the field; this saves labor 
that might be more profitably em- 
ployed in gathering up other manures. 
Instead of ^penning stock to make ma- 
nures, let them range the fields. Leave 
a shade-tree for every twenty-five 
acres of cleared land. The stock will 
feed until full, then go to the shade 
to rest. They drop but little manure 
till they get in motion — twenty to one 
hundred yards from the tree. Place 
salt over the field in right places. 
Pen your straw and shucks in occa- 
sional places over the field, that the 
stock may gather and litter around 
them. The cheapest and best plan 
to save manure from stock while graz- 
ing or eating off crops from fields, 
is to have the manure dropped by the 
stock where it is eaten. The urine 
soaks into the soil at once, and the 
excrement, like a post, commences 
rotting at the surface next the ground, 
and being covered by the sounder 



part, the earth absorbs the ammonia 
as fast as formed. Stock while graz- 
ing, drop manure regularly over the 
field, and the object of giving them 
shade-trees is to keep them out of 
the swamp. I contend that this plan 
gives cheaper manure, more beef and 
less labor than any other. Use ma- 
nures everywhere you plow and plant, 
except in a hole of water, or on a 
rock. If you cultivate land, it will pay 
to use manure, and it will pay best on 
lands that' pay best without it; the 
safest without manure is the safest 
with manure; and your labor will be 
more certainly rewarded by using ma- 
nure on all the land you plant. You 
can and must accumulate manures in 
the same ratio as you buy it — the more 
you purchase the more you can make 
at home. 

To get the full benefit of manures, 
lands must be rested to grow weeds, 
and accumulate vegetable mold. Also, 
use it on the pea crop for the same 
purpose. 

Peruvian guano and other strong ni- 
trogenous manures will exhaust land 
under any bad or erroneous system of 
farming. The mixture I recommend, 
under a good system, will make land 
rich. 

The use of guano or other commer- 
cial fertilizers is objected to by some 
— thinking it lessens the interest in 
home-made manures. It should be 
made the means of doubling the 
wheat and oat straw, producing twice 
the quantity of weeds where land is 
at rest, doubling the quantity of peas 
and vines — and the more of all such 
manures produced and saved, the bet- 
ter guano will pay. I am in favor of 
making the land produce double what 
it now produces, instead of doubling 
the number of laborers by the impor- 
tation of Chinese. — Double the pro- 
ductiveness of land, and it will be 
worth four times the present value. 
We want more manure, and the cities 
of the South can furnish it in pou- 
drette, and add greatly to the health 
of the places. 

Resting Lands — By this we mean, 
allowing it to lie without cultivation 
for one or more crop seasons, and al- 
lowing it to grow up in grass and 
weeds. This spontaneous crop — cov- 
ering the land well over during spring 



20 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



and summer, and rotting and decom- 
posing during the winter and spring, 
produces quite an amount of soluble 
vegetable matter for replenishing the 
exhausted quantum of vegetable mold 
and humus, without which in the soil 
no laud can claim productiveness, or 
any course of manuring prove of much 
benefit. This dry vegetable matter 
turned into the soil likewise furnishes 
traces of ammonia and other fertile 
elements whic^ tend to enliven and 
recuperate the soil. Such supply of 
vegetable matter is important for 
keeping the soil mellow and porous, 
so that it will readily take ii? the 
rainfall, with its fertile grasses, and 
allow the crop-roots to penetrate and 
pervade it. It prevents lands from 
baking after heavy rains, and quickly 
becoming hard and crusty and im- 
permeable to the atmosphere. 

The treatment of the various classes 
of soils does not vary so much as 
might be supposed. Extremes are 
likely to meet, and rest exerts differ- 
ent valuable effects upon different 
lands aside from its general uniform 
results. Let a sandy soil rest to accu- 
mulate vegetable mold, to turn the 
soil dark and enable it to receive the 
heat, and prevent reflection and burn- 
ing what is above ground; to hold a 
uniform heat, and so fasten the parti- 
cles of sand together as to enable the 
soil more readily to receive and hold 
moisture — all of which effects are im- 
portant besides the real and perma- 
nent increase of fertility. On the 
other hand, rest a clay soil not only 
to accumulate vegetable mold and de- 
posit fertile elements, but to darken 
the soil — as in case of sandy lands — 
open the particles of clay, and thus 
pulverize the soil so as to receive 
the rains, let in the air, light and 
gases, and enable it to imiformly re- 
tain heat and moisture. 

All lands should be rested at least 
one year in four; and the best time 
for rest is after small-grain crops. To 



make it more positively beneficial, 
treat it as follows: After taking off 
the grain crop, pasture the balance of 
the year. Rest from January to June 
or July the year after; then plant 
peas with manure; then feed off with 
stock. It will pay all interest and 
cost, and leave the land better for the 
next crop. The year after, plant in 
cotton, then in corn, and then in 
small grain, and again rest. 

Rotation of Crops. — The crops upon 
all lands should be changed occasion- 
ally; and it is practically important 
to change them every year under some 
regular system of rotation — such as 
my Five Field System, hereafter to 
be mentioned in these pages. Rota- 
tion of crops not only materially as- 
sists in furnishing the requisite sup- 
ply of vegetable mold and humus — 
the standard of which must be kept 
up — but is likewise important in a 
chemical sense. 

One object in the system of rotation 
of crops recommended is seen from 
the fact that all plants do not receive 
the same kind of material from the 
soil. One crop draws more phosphate, 
and another more ammonia, and some 
very little of either. If you were to 
plant one kind of corn alone for a 
number of years, it would soon ex- 
haust the land of that particular nu- 
tritive element required. For instance, 
the clean culture of cotton lessens the 
supply and exhausts the nitrogen in 
the same proportion; but a crop of 
wheat or oats or corn, with the addi- 
tional crop of grass and weeds, will 
replace all these exhausted elements 
— organic matter and ammonia, and 
besides, will furnish the soil phos- 
phoric acid. Hence the benefit ac- 
cruing from change of crops — not only 
to the present crop — but pefmanent 
improvement of the land. Rotation is 
a means of material importance in 
keeping up the land to a healthy and 
fertile standard, and can not, with 
impunity, be neglected by any practi- 
cal agriculturist. 



CHAPTER III. 



Fertilization of Soils and Crops. 



. I repeat, with emphasis, the practi- 
cal importance of the two means sug 
gested in last chapter for keeping up 
and positively enriching lands. I refer 
to rest and rotation. All these pi'oced- 
ures directly furnish the soil with 
vegetable matter, and certain fertiliz- 
ing elements — thus imitating the pro- 
cess of nature in the formation of ori- 
ginal or virgin soil. 

As an essential prelude to all direct 
and positive steps toward fertilizing 
the farm, we must mention proper 
drainage — ditching of the hillsides and 
draining the bottoms with deep and 
deeper plowing every year — in addi- 
tion to the incorporation of vegetable 
mold in the soil as above directed, 
even if you have to resort to two green 
crops on the same land the same year; 
but be sure to turn your land deeply 
and subsoil it every year. Return the 
proceeds of all crops to the land — as 
near as possible — including cotton- 
seed, pea-vines, wheat straw, etc. Make 
as much manure under shelter as pos- 
sible, using straw, leaves and other lit- 
ter to absorb the whole of the urine 
and excrement of the stock and no 
more. Utilize to the extent of your 
teams, all the scrapings from fence cor- 
ners, swamp mud, muck out of the 
ponds and bottoms, spreading it over 
the lands; all barn-yard manure, pre- 
served under shelter, and other rich 
scrapings. Everything made on the 
place after it is used or eaten, except 



the lint of cotton, which really takes 
nothing from the soil, must be returned 
to the land. 

Use commercial manures on all cropL 
planted, up to from one hundred to one 
thousand pounds per acre of "Dickson's 
Compound," which will be noticed di 
rectly on these pages. Soils are not 
to be considered up to their full capac- 
ity until you have twelve inches of soil 
and six inches of subsoil. It is a good 
plan to subsoil at least one-fourth of 
your crop lands every year. 

The greatest of all the means of im- 
proving lands is to use liberally the 
commercial manures every year, and 
on all crops planted, because you not 
only improve the land, but it will also 
pay you to use them out of the crops 
grown. I consider this the "philoso- 
pher's stone" in all farming. You 
may talk of machinery for saving labor 
but there is no such thing as labor-sav- 
ing where the liberal use of manure is 
neglected. No machinery can possibly 
compromise the importance and abso- 
lute necessity of manures in all farm- 
ing operations. They permanently im- 
prove lands, and at the same time, pay 
their own cost on every crop, and bring 
in clear net profits to reward labor and 
enterprise. But at the same time, 
while I consider annual application of 
good crop-gi'owing manures the great- 
est and cheapest means of saving la- 
bor, (hpy give you capital to increase 
your labor-saving machinery in the 
same proportion that they increase 
your crops. I would not deter the 



22 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



farmer from all labor-saving ma- 
chinery. I look upon manures and 
machinery as the best means by which 
we can add to our present labor. 

There are several points of impor- 
tance connected with the application of 
commercial manures as crop growers 
in order to obtain full fertilizing bene- 
fits. By former treatment of the lands, 
the soil must be properly imbued with 
vegetable matter and especially of 
vegetable mold, in order to prepare it 
for the process of chemical assimila- 
tion. When applied to worn down and 
exhausted soils, it fails to produce its 
full fertilizing effects; and, hence in 
routine farming it is frequently said of 
it that it "burns up the crops and ex- 
hausts the soil." This is all for the 
want of sufficiency of vegetable mat- 
ter to support and bring out the fertile 
powers of the guano. The absolute ne- 
cessity is proper system of farming. 

In my practice, and on my farms, 
these manures have always paid me 
good profit besides steadily improving 
my land. It is a great mistake to say 
"guano has exhausted and ruined my 
land." It was exhausted before the 
guano was applied, and, hence, the 
failure was attributable to the farmer 
in using guano on lands that had an in- 
sufficient supply of vegetable mold to 
support the guano and develop its fer- 
tilizing effects. The richest barn-yard 
compost may as signally fail in the 
hands of an ignorant routinist whose 
lands are never rested and whose 
depth of soil is only two inches instead 
of eighteen. 

Peruvian Guano — Is obtained from 
Peru and the Chincha Islands. The 
prevalent opinion is that this guano is 
the deposit of birds. My own opinion 
is, that this deposit is a natural forma- 
tion, the same as coal, iron, plaster, 
gold, etc., in those countries where 
they would be preserved for their pres- 
ent use. My reason for this opinion is 
founded on the enormous quantities of 
this deposit. In making a calculation 
of the number of birds that could set 
on these islan'ds and feed within a rea- 
sonable distance of each other, they 
never could have gotten a sufficient 
quantity of fish to produce the phos- 
phates and ammonia that are fovmd in 
the island, containing, as these guanos 



do, on an average, 16 per cent, of am- 
monia and 30 per cent, of bone earth. 
I have not the means of ascertaining 
the exact amount, but several millions 
of tons have long since been taken 
from these islands, and still the sup- 
ply is not exhausted. Now, if a few 
birds have accumulated all this — occu- 
pying not more land than one or two 
counties to feed on — what can the 
whole multitude of farmers do, with 
their stock spread over the whole 
globe? I say, that they can make 
every acre rich, if they will. 
Providence intended the earth should 
increase in fertility as rapidly as it 
does in population. Every man. 
that assists in removing this dor- 
mant guano, lying idle and useless on 
the Chincha Islands, and puts it in cir- 
culation, creating therewith food and 
clothing, is a benefactor to his kind. 
The country suffers for want of a share 
of the surplus fertilizing material. Re- 
move the deposit, and apply it to our 
crops, and it will enrich the land, and 
even that which escapes will enrich 
the atmosphere, to be gathered in 
again by growing plants. 

As already stated, in my practice, I 
have found Peruvian guano the best 
fertilizer I have ever used; and as in a 
large majority of manures, its princi- 
pal value consist in the amount of ni- 
trogen and ammonia it cor;\tains. Not 
undervaluing other substances, yet I 
consider ammonia at the, head of the 
list. 

I commenced the use of guano in 
1846, and gradually increased the use 
of it until the present time — never hav- 
ing omitted to use it on my crops ex- 
cepting the last years of the war, when 
I could not obtain it. With a proper 
system of rotation of crops, and return- 
ing all the crops to the land, except 
the lint of the cotton, land may be im- 
proved with Peruvian guano alone, but 
not so fast as when you combine with 
the soil all the elements of the plants 
to be grown. Ammonia being necessary 
for all plants, I know of no crop that 
it would not benefit. It will pay the 
best upon those crops that bring the 
most money — cotton being that crop in 
this section, and tobacco in other sec- 
tions. 

The direct fertilization of lands is ef- 
fected by various manures, ",ottonseed. 



FERTILIZATION OF SOILS AND CROPS. 



23' 



and a long list of commercial and ma- 
nipulated compounds. 

But as I am proposing simply to fur- 
nish the reader my own system of 
farming, I shall restrict my notice of 
manures to those only that I have used 
in my own practice, and which from 
long experience and successful results 
I can commend as valuable and relia- 
ble fertiiizers. 

Ammonia — Is certainly the most val- 
uable manure known to agriculture. I 
consider it the best crop grower, and 
the mainspring that puts all the rest in 
action. As already noticed, it abounds 
in Peruvian guano, and is the special 
ingredient that makes this guano solu- 
ble as a fertilizer. It is largely fur- 
nished by barn-yard manures and com- 
posts and also by cottonseed, and 
hence the value of these substances as 
strong and powerful fertilizers. The 
manure heap and the compost of lot 
manure and cottonseed attach their 
chief value as fertilizers and crop 
growers to the ammonia evolved. Am 
monia is contained in the atmosphere 
and by the rain-fall is carried down 
and diffused in the soil. It is an ingre- 
dient of one of the components of the 
atmosphere, and an element in all 
plants. It is supplied to the soil bv 
decomposition of plants and, hence 
the fertilizing value of green crops 
turned into the soil. The soil incor- 
porates the ammonia and holding it as 
a fertile element, feeds it to the grow- 
ing crops. 

Ammonia being the most easily ex- 
hausted of all manures, it requires an- 
nual application to the soil for suste- 
nance and growth of annual crops, and 
yet its impress is permanent upon the 
soil. Witness for instance, the lasting 
fertile effect of a pile of cottonseed or 
heap of wheat-straw upon a certain 
spot of ground. . It will show itself for 
ten years to come, and hixuriant 
crops will annually mark the spot. 
Hence, we say of ammonia, it is the 
chief of all the crop-growers, and the 
most substantial fertilizing element 
known to the farmer and horticultur- 
allst. 

Dissolved Bones — I consider second 
in phosphates or value as a fertilizer — 
it being one of the most important in- 
gredients in the chemical composition 
of the grain and seeds of plants. This 



substance forms the basis of many of 
the most valuable commercial phos- 
phates and compounds now in popular 
use as fertilizers. Of these their value 
depends on their solubility. While in- 
soluble they are worthless to growing 
crops. 

Potash — 'I consider of third rate, or 
mere nominal value as a fertilizer, 
compared \frith ammonia and the phos- 
phates. It is not of much value as a 
crop-grower, but seems to act benefi- 
cially upon some soils by dissolving 
and thus reducing some of the inor- 
ganic and mineral substances of the 
soil to an assimilable condition. 

Land Piaster and Salt. — We mention 
these, not as positive fertilizers, but as 
in some sense, adjuncts to the two 
prominent fertilizers last mentioned. 
These will pay their cost; but their 
greatest value consists in keeping the 
other manures active, preventing rust 
and assisting crops in standing dry 
weather. 

With sufficiency of the above-named 
manures, viz.: ammonia, dissolved 
bones, land plaster and salt, the crops 
will be enabled to find most of the 
other ingredients necessary for their 
development and maturity. It is ad- 
mitted that every article composing 
the plant must be present in the soil, 
but I do not think that they should be 
in exact quantities. It will do to have 
more of one ingredient and less of an- 
other. My favorite 'compound' — pres- 
ently to be noticed, is about as near 
perfect — in point of supplying everj' 
element of plant food — as a manure 
can be made. It does not put you to 
the trouble of getting all the ingre- 
dients of plants and combining them, 
the four principal ones enabling the 
plant to find the others that are neces- 
sary. Should they fail, all economical 
means should be used to find out what 
particular item is wanting and sup- 
ply it. 

"Dickson's Compound." — Twenty- 
years of diligent research and study of 
the laws of nature as applied to agri- 
culture, with the experimental use of 
Peruvian and other guanos upon soils 
and crops. I have determined upon the 
following combination of commercial 
manures as the best and most valuable 
for all crops: 



•24 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



Formula, "Dickson's Compound." 

Peruvian Guano 100 pounds 

Dissolved Bones 100 pounds 

Common Salt 100 pounds 

Land Plaster 50 pounds 

Well mixed. 

This compound I have now been us- 
ing for many years upon all my farm 
crops, and unfailingly with satisfac- 
tory results. In my hands and under 
my system of farming, this compound 
has never failed to grow me good crops 
and bring me satisfactory dividend's. 
It has always paid me, and my clear 
profits have always been larger in pro- 
portion to the amount of the compound 
applied — up to one thousand pounds 
per acre. I have long since learned 
not to fear failure of making paying 
crops no matter the season. 

This year, (1869) has been the dryest 
year that I have known since I have 
been farming, there having fallen very 
little rain since the 27th of April. At 
this time, November the 8th — many 
branches and creeks on my place have 
not a drop of water in them. My mill 
has not turned since the first of May. 
and there is not a drop of water in the 
pond, though I have an unusually tight 
dam. It has been one of the best years 
for testing the value of the different 
modes of farming, in my whole farm- 
experience. The negroes have notions 
of their own, and I have thought proper 
to let them be convinced of the value 
of the "compound" by their own experi- 
ments. Some of them have used on a 
portion of the crop, bone and Peruvian 
guano alone, others used on the bal- 
ance of the crop the full "compound." 
They are enabled now — at any time 
day or night — to see the difference be- 
tween the effects of the full "com- 
pound" and the bone and Peruvian 
guano alonC' — the crops grown with the 
compound grew better, kept greener, 
made larger ears of corn and more of 
them, and finer cotton. 

This year has been considered one 
of the most disastrous for rust, but I 
have had less rust this year than usual, 
not exceeding one or two per cent, on 
the plantation, and having a great deal 
of land that is subject to rust. I tried 
this year an experiment on a plot of 
land that failed to make cotton fifty- 



two years ago. I planted that plat on 
the nineteenth and twentieth of May, 
and the cotton on it was flourishing, 
with no rust, except on about one-half 
of an acre of the water-oak land on one 
edge. It has produced the largest bolls 
of any cotton on the plantation, having 
used about 800 pounds of the "com- 
pound" to the acre. This plat has pro- 
duced I believe, and all visitors think 
so too, no less than one bale per acre. 
It would require no less than 400 lbs. 
of the compound to do this, still any 
one will find that it will pay a good in- 
terest on the money to use a thousand 
pounds of the compound per acre. No 
man should object to making an invest- 
ment in this compound when he is paid 
from four to ten times the interest on 
his money that he would get by loan- 
ing it to a bank, a railroad or his neigh- 
bor. The true test for deciding what 
is the most profitable amount of ma- 
raire to be used, is to take off the legal 
rate of interest on the amount that is 
used, and then count the dollars they 
have made over, and not the per cent, 
that any given quantity makes. For 
instance, you would use one hundred 
pounds of it to the acre, the cost being, 
say, four dollars per hundred pounds, 
the interest would be twenty-eight 
cents; it would gain six dollars, mak- 
ing one hundred and fifty per cent. 
There is six dollars made per acre 
above the rate of interest. If you 
use 400 pounds per acre at a cost 
of $16, the interest is $1.12. If it 
only gained one hundred per cent 
there is $16, showing $14.88 clear 
profit. I admit that there would be 
a less per centage, but the estimate 
is made in order to show that the 
profit is greater the more guano If 
used after deducting the legal rate of 
interest until you reach the amount of 
about one thousand pounds per acre. 
In each of these calculations, the labor 
is the same, and a large crop is as eas- 
ily gathered as a small one. Large 
ears of corn are more easily gathered 
than small ones, and the same is true 
of perfect bolls of cotton. In addition 
to this, you have the advantage of the 
great stimulus to work that a fine cot- 
ton and corn crop gives to the laborers. 
This compound I have used on all 
sorts of crops. I used it because I con- 
sider it the most perfect compound. 



FERTILIZATION OF SOILS AND CROPS. 



25 



and combining more, appropriately the 
several chemical elements entering 
into the composition of, and necessary 
for the sustenance, growth and devel- 
opment of the several farm-crops. 

In answer to the question frequently 
asked, to what class of lands is your 
compound applicable? I desire to 
state, that I have used it successfully 
and with remunerative results upon 
all my lands, including every variety 
of soil to be found in Middle Georgia. 
My lands extend from the granite hills 
in Hancock county, to the rotten lime- 
stone and long moss in Washington 
County; from red, rocky hills, to a 
blowing sand twenty feet to the clay, 
and from a mulatto soil to a pipe clay; 
and tell you if a farmer can make corn 
and cotton on- a blowing sand, he can 
make them anywhere above water — off 
of a solid rock. So my compound is 
well-nigh applicable to all farm lands. 
Can any man believe that ammonia 
and phosphates would even fail where 
a plow ought to run? I have been of- 
ten asked. Wbat kind of land pays 
best with guano? I have but one reply 
— "land that pays best without it;" 
Land could be so rich, that sixteen 
hundred pounds of ammonia would 
make but a small per centage of profit 
on investment; but we have none such 
in Georgia. 

Land can be improved, and eventu- 
ally ma'de rich, under proper system of 
treatment and culture, by atmospheric 
agencies alone. But this agency can 
be greatly quickened by the compound. 
The better drained and preserved the 
soil, and the deeper ploughed, the more 
rapidly the land can be improved. The 
ammonia and carbonic acid of the at- 
mosphere, continually formed and de- 
posited in the land, will yearly improve 
the crops, which under proper rotation, 
will leave more in the soil than they 
take from it. The richer a soil grows, 
the more will the plants grown upon it 
take from the atmosphere, and the 
more rapidly can its fertility be in- 
creased. I do not underrate the value 
of any manure that supplies the ele- 
ments necessary to make a perfect 
grain of corn or cottonseed; but I do 
attach superior importance and value 
to ammonia and carbon or vegetable 
matter. 



In some classes of lands containing 
an excess of lime and other minerals, 
continued cultivation without the ap- 
plication of ammonia in some form 
seems to tire in productiveness and ap- 
parently become exhausted. This ex- 
cess of mineral supplies in the soil ren- 
ders all nitrogenous matters soluble, 
and the supply of ammonia is soo?t 
given off to the plants, whilst the ma- 
nure has not been returned. Sow such 
lands down in cowpeas or clover, 
treated as already directed, and in two 
years the exhausted lands will be re- 
stored almost to virgin productiveness; 
ammonia is known to be the great 
crop-grower, but to command it, you 
must have all the necessary salts con- 
tained in the various crops. The more 
nitrogen or ammonia you store away 
in your land, the more you can obtain 
from the atmosphere. 

I advocate mixing the valuable es- 
sential manures to grow perfect plants, 
as in my compound; but if you use 
only one, let that be ammonia, as it is 
the best and cheapest; but as it will be 
materially assisted by soluble bone, I 
add it in my formula, and also land 
plaster and salt. I think my compound 
well nigh a perfect manure, and would 
be quite so with plenty of potash in the 
land, or it was added by sowing ashes. 
To be successful in agriculture the 
farmer must know where all the ele- 
ments of plants are, and how to con- 
trol them. 

Plow deep and subsoil, use all possi- 
ble manures to be had on the place, 
and purchase largely of the best ma- 
nures in the market. Get manures, as 
perfect plant-growers as can be found; 
but you must have ammonia and solu- 
ble bone. With these, or my com- 
pound, you will have no use for second 
breaking. 

I am friendly to all pure guanos 5n 
their natural state, but prefer mixing 
them myself, and saving the profit, and 
for one, will buy that manure that pays 
the best. It is not recorded in my 
book of practice that, by adding a fer- 
tilizer to land. T kill that land. 

Fair, practical tests have decided in 
favor of ammonia as the chief of all 
known fertilizers. Under Northern 
and European systems, the farmers are 
improving their lands almost exclu- 
sively by increasing their supplies of 



26 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



ammonia, growing hay, clover, oat;; 
and rye, and keeping stock to eat these 
crops annually, not gaining, but losing 
phosphates, and gaining nitrogen, mak- 
ing the land rich, and the land making 
the owner rich with luxuriant and 
abundant crops. In English agriculture, 
ammonia is the foundation as taken 
from the atmosphere, from Peruvian 
guano, from the turnip, hay, clover, 
etc., returning merely the bone earth 
by ammonia, which last is constantly 
increasing in its relative amount. 

With a little ammonia we can gather 
large amounts every year, getting 
larger returns from year to year, by 
adding a little ammonia annually, and 
getting good dividends on the invest- 
ment. I believe strongly in natural 
laws. Study nature, trace all things 
from cause to effect, and from effect to 
cause; but take no such extreme views 
as some do, advocating surface manur- 
ing because the trees drop their leaves 
on the ground, and hence, it is nature's 
plan to manure, the surface. At all 
events add a little science, experience 
and art to assist, instead of invalidat- 
ing the wisdom of natural laws. To 
command and use ammonia in the best 
and most economical way, both for 
permanently improving the farm, and 
getting large crop dividends, you must 
have five fields: 

Five-Field System. — 'First, a perma- 
nent pasture; one for cotton, one for 
corn, one for small grain, one at rest. 
The field that rested last year, put in 
cotton with 300 or more pounds of the 
compound, or some guano, per acre. 
The fiel'd that was in cotton last year, 
plant in corn, manuring with the cot- 
tonseed, putting in the middles cow- 
peas at the proper season for manur- 
ing the crop that follows, and it will 
pay to manure them for this purpose 
with the compoimd. 

The field that was in com last year 
should be sown in small grain, with 
two hundred pounds or more of my 
compound per acre. 

The field that had small grain last 
year should rest after harvest up to 
from the 1st to 2nth of Julv of the ne-^ 
year, then put in peas, with one hun- 
dred and twenty-five pounds of my 
guano. The method of putting in the 
peas has^already been given the reader 
under the head of "General Treatment 



of Lands." Should you not have time 
to plant the peas, let the land rest the 
balance of the year. This will become 
the cotton field for the next year, 
whether sown in peas or not. Where 
clover succeeds, it can be sown with 
the small grain, and will gather fer- 
tility faster than the spontaneous 
growth. 

Now I will state a different way to 
prove that ammonia is the cheapest 
and most expeditious means to renew 
the fertility of land, and make It pro- 
ductive. In the first place, I will refer 
you to clover. Every person knows 
the effect that clover has on worn land, 
in a climate where it will grow. The 
chief things added to the soil by a 
clover crop, are carbon and ammonia. 
In the South, the cowpea will answer 
the same end, if sown early, manured 
with two hundred pounds of Peruvian 
guano, and turned under from the 1st 
of July to the 1st of August ; then at the 
same time seeded again with peas, us- 
ing one hundred pounds of guano. Feed 
off with hogs and beef cattle, which 
will generally pay for all expenses, and 
leave the land twenty dollars better — 
the increase in value, to be decided by 
the increased production of the next 
cotton crop, compared with that of a 
part of the field that you have left un- 
manured, and not sown with peas. 

If any man will try this experiment 
on one acre each way, and fails to get 
his money back next year, in cotton, 1 
will send him the Cultivator during 
my life. All acknowledge the impor- 
tance of turning under green crops. 
The only thing lost by their drying, is 
their ammonia. I have made money 
by giving my land one year in four, to 
gather ammonia and humus. 

One of the great objects, aside from 
the immense profits of using commer- 
cial manures is, that it gives you the 
means of increasing your composts. It 
gives you increased feed for stock — in- 
creases your cottonseed and grasses 
to be turned under: causes weeds and 
other things to spring up early in the 
winter to be turned in the spring with- 
out any loss or trouble of using green 
crops. These weeds protect the land 
from washing during the heavy winter 
rains. Land washes much less when 
fertilizers are used, for the reason that 
they encourage deeper plowing; make 



FERTILIZATION OF SOILS AND CHOPS. 



tl 



three times the amount of litter to pro- 
tect the land. One of the benefits of 
shade on land when at rest, that there 
is a less amount of manures becoming 
soluble, and less leaching of the land 
during the year of rest. Cottonseed is 
very valuable as a manure, being eas- 
ily decomposed, and returning to its 
natural elements as food for plants. 
All articles of a vegetable nature, when 
reduced to their natural elements, are 
valuable as fertilizers. Manures are 
not alone valuable for the food they 
supply to plants, but they render the 
land more easy to cultivate and assist 
the crops in standing either wet 
weather or dry weather. They cause 
less friction and resistance to the 
plough or hoe. Manures I consider 
one of the best economizers of labor 
that we can use in a hilly, broken or 
gullied country — vastly preferable to 
emigrants, because if the production 
becomes too great you can abandon 
the use of them for a season. 

Barn-Yard Manures. — Except the 
droppings on the farm, all stock ma- 
nures should be raised under shelter, 
as far as practicable, and with as little 
labor as possible. It should be taken 
from where it has been deposited and 
carried directly to where it is to be 
used, never permitting it to be thrown 
into the rain, or exposed to the sun to 
be burned and become of less value. It 
should be spread on the ground and ap- 
plied immediately, so that the decom- 
position shall take place exactly where 



it is wanted. In this way the earth 
will take hold of all the gases and 
other diffusible substance formed, and 
retain them for the crop. 

In addition to the droppings of the 
stock, everything that has been of a 
vegetable character is of value when 
applied to the land, and I consider it 
the cheapest and best method to take 
it where you find it, and carry it to the 
nearest place where it can be used. 

Lime spread over where you have de- 
posited it, will reduce it to plant food 
by the aid of heat, light and moisture 
in sufficient time for the crops, ■which 
will be a great saving in handling and 
rehandling it from three to four times, 
the extra labor being of more value in 
ircreasing the amount by hunting 
waste deposits. In manures, as in 
everything else, the great considera- 
tion is to economize labor. Haul into 
your lot, and place in your stalls pine- 
straw, leaves or litter of any kind, suf- 
ficient to absorb the ammonia of the 
stock droppings, and take up the urine, 
and have as much of this saved under 
shelter as possible. Once a week 
sprinkle it with land plaster to help 
dissolve the matter and retain the am- 
monia. Do not pile or handle it. Pitch 
it into the cart and carry it to the field. 
Make eveiy lick count. Manure loses 
every time it is turned. Employ your 
idle labor in gathering up scrapings of 
manure and deposits from every possi- 
ble source. 




The Chicken for the Farm. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Organic and Inorganic Manures. 



These are the two recognized and 
distinct classes of manures, and we de- 
sire to consider them respectively, in 
comparison to value as crop growers. 

Inorganic manures, such as lime, pot- 
ash, phosphates, etc., are the basis of 
all fertility and where they abound in 
considerable quantities will enable 
plants to gather and appropriate much 
more of the organic manures. But 
plants and seeds are not always made 
up of specific quantities, any more 
than a hog is. Take a fat hog, weigh- 
ing three hundred pounds, and one of 
the same age very poor, weighing one 
hundred pounds. Analyze the two, 
and note the difference in proportion of 
all the parts, according to the weight 
of each animal. How various the pro- 
portions of bone, nitrogen, carbon, etc. 

The same disproportion holds good 
as to cottonseed, the different plants, 
wood, etc., as to weight and to the in- 
crease when applied to crops. 

Farmers, and others not acquainted 
with chemistry, can ascertain the rela- 
tive proportion of the organic and in- 
organic substances by the use of fire. 
For instance, take ten bushels cotton- 
seed, and reduce them to ashes by fire. 
Having weighed them before reducing 
them, weigh the ashes that are left; 
the amount set free comes from the at- 
mosphere, and constituted the organic 
elements of the seed — the ashes re- 
maining represents the inorganic ele- 
ments. To ascertain the respective 
value of these, as food for crops, is 
done by applying the ashes of the ten 



bushels cottonseed just burned to a 
given quantity of land — noting the in- 
crease of crop products; and then ap- 
plying ten bushels green cottonseed to 
the same quantity of land — deducting 
the per cent, made over nothing. This 
will show what was produced by the 
organic matter of the ten bushels seed, 
in contradistinction to what was pro- 
duced by the inorganic constituent of 
the same quantity of seed. As already 
stated, what is true of cottonseed, 
holds true with other seeds, and all 
vegetable matter. 

My opinion is that, one bushel of 
raw cottonseed is worth for the growth 
of plants, as much as the ashes of one 
hundred bushels of burnt seed. This 
I consider a fair test of the difference 
in value between the phosphates and 
alkalies on the one hand, and carbon 
and ammonia on the other. I had 
four hundred thousand pounds of cot- 
ton and seed burned in one house. The 
whole residue — as manure — was not 
worth to me as much as one thousand 
pounds of seed. 

As another instance, illustrating the 
disproportionate value of organic and 
inorganic substances as crop-growers: 
Take the manure of ten horses one 
year, dropped under cover, and set free 
of all organic parts by burning — there- 
by wasting the ammonia. Then take 
the droppings from a like number of 
horses, dropped in like manner. Use 
this on twenty acres cotton — use the 
other on twenty acres the same kind 
of land — then plant twenty acres with- 



ORGAMC AND INORGANIC MANURES. 



29 



out any manure. Cultivate all exactly 
alike, and the difference in crop prod- 
ucts will be a fair test between phos- 
phates and ammonia as a fertilizer. 
The only discount on this test is the 
fact that the commercial phosphates 
are mostly insoluble — the ammonia be- 
ing alv/ays soluble, or will be in due 
time, which is a great item in favor of 
ammonia. 

With a full supply of nitrogenous and 
carbonaceous matter, corn and cotton, 
etc., may be made with much less, in 
proportion, of potash and bone earth. 
Take a cord of black-jack wood off a 
poor pine or black-jack ridge, where 
there is but little organic matter, aiul 
set the organic matter free by burn- 
ing the wood; then take the second 
cord of black-jack from a rich bottom, 
vvnere the organic matt'i^r abounds rn 
great quantities, an'd relatively in 
much greater proportion to the inor- 
ganic matter; burn this as you did the 
first cord. The cord of wood from the 
poor land, will contain nearly double 
the quantity of phosphate of lime and 
potash that exists in the wood from 
the rich land. All soapmakers have 
found this true as to potash. 

All these experimental facts, taken 
with our experience with the fertiliz- 
ing results of turning under clover, 
peas and other vegetable crops, prove 
unmistakably that ammonia is the 
cheapest and most expeditious means 
of renewing the fertility of land, and 
making it productive, in comparison 
with the commercial phosphates, which 
are so generally insoluble as to prove 
almost worthless. 

Finding from the above experiment 
that such a large proportion of plants 
come from the atmosphere, we are 
taught the reason why we should grow 
green crops and other crops to be 
turned into the land, and from every 
source to let as much atmosphere into 
the soil as possible; because the more 
organic matter we have in the soil, the 
more we can command annually from, 
the atmosphere. 

* * * I am for an annual manure — a 
soluble manure — one that will return 
the principal, or at least seventy-five 
per cent, of it, with one hundred and 
twenty-five per cent, profit, or double 
the investment. I am in favor of an 



investment that never pleads for time, 
or complains of usurious interest, or 
calls for relief or repudiation, but will 
punctually square up accounts, with 
one hundred per cent, profit. Such an 
investment is soluble bones and Peru- 
vian guano. Lend it to your land, in 
sums of from five to fifteen dollars per 
acre, at six to nine months' time,, and 
if you do your duty— plough deep and 
cultivate shallow — the payment will be 
sure. Your land will be left in better 
condition; money will be furnished to 
put back the same amount of manure 
the. next year, and ample dividends 
made to live on and make other invest- 
ments. The word "stimulate" is im- 
properly applied to manures. Plants 
have no nerves for them to act upoii< 
When you see plants growing very rap- 
idly, to which manure has been ap- 
plied ; do not think they are drunk. The 
truth is, the manure is soluble, and not 
permanent; and the roots of the plants 
are absorbing it, and the blades work- 
ing it up for the crop. I have no use 
for a permanent manure. If perma- 
nent, it is not soluble; if not soluble, 
it never will enter the roots of the 
plants; and if it does not enter the 
roots of the plants, your money is gone. 
No manure is worth a cent, if perma- 
nent. TTie Atlantic ocean would not 
be permanent, if its supplies were cut 
off — if the rain ceased, and all the riv- 
ers were stopped. Supposing it level 
at bottom as well as at top, and one 
thousand feet deep, still it would dry 
up' in less than two hundred years — a 
shorter time than some lands in Vir- 
ginia have been cultivated. So, away 
with your permanent manures; but be 
ever vigilant to save all home-made 
manures possible, of every variety — 
pine straw and swamp mud included. 
Manipulate your sandy land with clay, 
your clay land with vegetable mold. 
Plough deep, rotate your crops, and 
rest your lands. Buy liberally of solu- 
ble manure, and save twice as much 
as if you tfought none. Is there a sin- 
gle planter who would lend money to 
be paid in equal installments of twenty 
years, with low interest? Yet if he 
uses permanent manures, he can not- 
expect much better luck. Is there one 
that is unwilling to lend his money at 
six and nine months, have it under his 



80 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



control all the time, and get prompt 
payment — receiving seventy-five per 
cent, of the principal, and one hundred 
and twenty-five per cent, profit? Give 
me the manure that will pay promptly, 
with good dividends. Do not be afraid 
that it will exhaust your land. Put the 
cottonseed back, together with the ma- 
nure from the straw, corn, oats and 
^ shucks, with the straw used to save 

» the manure and bed the stock; also 
what the crops got from the atmos- 
phere. I would like to have my land 
exhausted in that way. 

Tliere is only so much corn and cot- 
ton in any manure, and the sooner you 
get it the better. It will pay. The 
loss W'ill be smaller, and only one 
year's work required. The same is 
true of land. There is only material 
enough in it to make a given quantity 
of corn or cotton, and the greater quan- 
tity you get each year the better. Do 
not understand me that I am for ex- 
hausting land. Not- so. Each year 
put back more than you take from 
it. Accumulate a large fund in soluble 
mold and other manure, and never let 
it be said by posterity, that it is harder 
for them to live because you lived be- 
fore them. Leave your land better 
than you found it. Improve agricul- 
ture, so that a given quantity of labor 
may produce double what it now does 
— double the capacity of the land. Then 
each agriculturist will be able to con- 
sume four times as much as he does at 
present in necessaries and luxuries. 

This can be done. During my day 
the planters in Hancock county have 
doubled their crops. There were more 
planters in Hancock county who made 
ten bales per hand in 1861, than there 
were who made five bales to the hand 
in 1845. I repeat, buy Peruvian guano 
and dissolved bones, and some salt and 
plaster, where the freight is not too 
high. Try on a small scale (or large, 
if you wish) all pure guanos, and be 
governed by the result. For one, I 
■will not touch a manipulated manure. 

It creates a middle man, to compete 
with me in bones, guano, etc. If there 
is anything to be gained by mixing, I 
want to make it myself and then I 
know also that it is pure. I want no 
manure that will not pay, without the 
addition to it of Peruvian guano. 

Suppose Dr. Pendleton had mixed 



his Peruvian guano with sand — half 
and half — it would have paid two hun- 
dred and twelve per cent! Good! But 
four hundred and thirty is better. 

* * * By using two hundred pounds 
of Peruvian guano per acre annually, 
you double the relative products of 
your growing crops, compared with 
land fresh from the forest, and with 
crops that have no guano. Tlierefore, 
you will get a double proportion from 
the atmosphere. 

It is even possible that enriching the 
land in Europe, has, to some extent, 
lessened the fertility of the atmosphere 
in this country. The richer you make 
your land, the more you can draw from 
the atmosphere. 

* * * I do not say this is the only 
plan, or the best plan; but it is one 
that will certainly improve your land, 
and pay good dividends, if you can get 
reliable labor. You have had my re- 
ceipt for what I think one of the best 
manures, except I would add ten 
pounds of potash, or one bushel of 
wood ashes. I leave it out for two sea- 
sons — the scarcity of potash, and the 
exhausted financial condition of the 
country. This article is not designed 
to underrate superphosphates, but to 
show that ammonia is the cheapest 
and best of all manures, and that, judg- 
ing by experience, it will not exhaust 
land, but may be the means of enrich- 
ing it. If it fails, it is the man's fault 
— not that of ammonia. 

You will find some guanos advertised 
as permanent manures. I want to 
avoid that kind, for I think it is true 
of some of them at least, that when I 
use them, my crops do not remove 
them. I prefer the kind that will come 
to see me the first year, and bring a 
large interest, in the form of cotton, 
corn, wheat, etc. 

The true system in manuring, is to 
get the manure back the first year, 
with a living profit, and rapidly im- 
prove the soil up to its original capac- 
ity, and carry it beyond that in the 
same ratio as the increase. We are 
only tenants at will, and have no right 
to use the soil in a way to destroy its 
capacity to maintain the present popu- 
lation and its future increase. When 
the people understand the difference 
in an acre of land that will produce a 



ORGANIC AND INORGANIC MANURES. 



31 



hundred pounds, and one that will pro- 
duce five hundred pounds of lint cotton 
—that this difference exists in the 
present value of each of these two 
acres of land, we then will begin to im- 
prove our farms. 

The great inquiry is, on what kind 
of land to use the guano and other com- 
mercial manures. I say, use it on all 
lands you plough or cultivate — or 
everywhere. 

* * * All my practice and teaching 
has been that the use of manures I rec- 
ommend, gave the farmer the means 
of making and using double the quanti- 
ty of home-made manures. I again re- 
peat this, and as well as I can, with de- 
moralized labor, still practice upon it. 
I not only consider it hurtful to the 
purse, but sinful to waste manures, or 
not to use the necessary precautions 
to save them. My motto is, to increase 
the fertility of the soil in a greater 
ratio than the population increases. My 
soil furnishes a portion of the food to 
raise fish and oysters in the Atlantic 
ocean, and if I can make a profit and 
improve my land by using the excre- 
ment of birds fed on fish, etc., it is my 
duty as well as my interest to do so. 

It has been truly said that "the true 
test of a general was success." I say, 
it is the only test that will do to try 
the farmer by. Some writers have 
greatly misrepresented me, in charging 
that I overlook the great profits of 
home-made manures. One reason why 
I use commercial fertilizers is, that I 
may save double the quantity of home- 
made manures. I make double the 
crops, have twice the amount of forage 
to feed away, and twice as much cot- 
tonseed for manure. * * * 

It is true that I made fine crops be- 
fore I used guano, bones, salt and plas- 
ter, but nothing to compare with crops 
made with them. It is self-sustaining; 
it is punctual in payments; never re- 
pudiates or asks an extention of time; 
wants no stay-laws or military orders; 
pays promptly, and on an average as 
much as one hundred and twenty-five 
per cent, and at other times as high as 
four hundred. It enables one to make 
double the quantity of home-made ma- 
nures: improves the land; gives the 
means of keeping more and better 
stock; improves crops: makes the la- 



borers more cheerful and willing to 
work; puts money in the hands to do 
fancy farming; purchases good machin- 
ery and tools; will afford some luxu- 
ries as well as substantials; enables 
you to work freedmen, when they 
would bring you in debt without it. If 
I could realize all the profits on $12,000 
to $20,000 worth of guano, I could do 
well throwing in the use of land, horse- 
power, tools, capital to furnish sup- 
plies, together with my attention, 
which alone increases the crop more 
than one-half. * * * 

Guano pays back the purchase-mon- 
ey in cotton lint which is but little loss 
of matter, and the guano furnishes 
more than that loss, and leaves a still 
larger amount in pocket. It enables 
one to plough twelve inches deep in a 
thin soil, inasmuch as the guano placed 
near the roots of plants, gives them 
vigor to go forth and find the soluble 
matter that is diffused so thinly 
through the land: without the use of 
some concentrated manure, the plant 
would never have vigor to hunt up the 
crop food so deeply mixed in the poor 
land. 

* * * I will tell you something that 
guano did for me when I could direct 
labor and be obeyed. I made per hand 
ten to fourteen bales of cotton, eight 
hundred to twelve hundred pounds of 
pork, one mutton, three-fourths of a fat 
beef or three hundred pounds, eight to 
ten colts per year, Jvith corn, wheat, 
oats, rye, etc., to sell, amounting to 
$100 per hand; to keep one yoke of fine 
young oxen for every three hands, to 
aid in hauling muck, straw, and ma- 
nure generally: and keep two hundred 
acres of land under a good fence per 
hand: six to seven head of cattle, ten 
to twelve head of hogs, five sheep per 
hand — all besides being a cotton 
planter. 

Instead of penning my stock to make 
manures, I let them graze the fields, 
and induced them to keep away from 
the swamps, by saving shade trees in 
the fields, and making straw-pens and 
shuck-pens, and placing salt about in 
convenient places. Stock while graz- 
ing, drop manure regularly over the 
field. I contend that this plan gives 
cheaper manure, more beef and less 
labor than any other. This plan paid 



32 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



me in astounding profits in meat, ma- 
nure and dollars, and, conjoined witli 
other distinctive features of my plan of 
farming, and have always returned me 
gratifying results. 

* * * I invite the reader to an aggre- 
gate view of my cotton production: 
Ten thousand persons planting as I do, 
would produce ten millions of bales of 
cotton (my crop in 1861 was one thou- 
sand bales, last year very little less.") 
The ten millions of bales at the pres- 
ent price, would give one thousand mil- 
lions of dollars; one-half of this due to 
the use of the manure, would place five 
hundred millions of dollars to its 
credit; deduct, then, the cost of the 
manure (one hundred and twenty mil- 
lions), and it leaves three hundred and 
eighty millions clear profit, as the land 
will be benefited to the full amount of 
all the labor. I like such drains as 
that — it gives power and profit. 

* * * In 1861, four thousand planters 
raising such crops as I did, would have 
made four millions of bales. Last 
year, it. would have taken but a few 
over two thousand planters, to have 
produced a crop equal to that of 1861 
(each making as much as I did) ; so 
you see the only thing we have to fear, 
from using guano, and making the 
most of it, is over-production. 

* * * We can purchase fifty millions 
dollars worth of guano in its raw state, 
and clear one hundred millions of dol- 
lars on it in nine months, and expend 
nothing additional in manufacturing 
cotton and grain out of it. I say, do 
not let any foreigner have your dollars, 
when you can with certainty make two 
dollars in nine months, clear of cost, 
for every dollar spent. 

If Dr. Pendleton and others, who 
seek to show the superior value of 
phosphates compared with ammonia, 
are right, what becomes of the green 
crop manuring? We have been taught to 
believe that it was the nitrogen added 
ed that paid for the time and expense. 
What also became of the rest system? 
Dr. Pendleton's comments explode that 
too; nothing of importance being 
added, but carbon and nitrogen. What 
becomes of the British turnip system, 



or the Northern system of growing hay 
and grain, to feed stock to accumulate 
nitrogen with a loss of phosphates, etc., 
to increase future crops? 

Why does the farmer, when he 
wishes to turn in a green crop, select 
the plants that contain the most nitro- 
gen, such as clover and peas? It is 
because practice has proven their 
value. Take one thousand (1,000) 
bushels of cottonseed, now worth twa 
hundred dollars, to manure with, set 
the nitrogen and carbon free by fire, 
and what would you give for the phos- 
phates and other salts left? I do not 
think they could be sold for ten dol- 
lars. 

Why is it that the rich lands in Ken- 
tucky, as they term it, tire when they 
are full of all mineral manures? I will 
give you my opinion. It is, that the 
excess of lime, and perhaps other min- 
erals, renders all nitrogenous matters 
soluble. Tlie ammonia is soon given 
of to the plants, whilst the manure has 
not been returned. 

What is the remedy? Sow it down 
in that nitrogenous plant, clover, and 
in two years the exhausted land is re- 
stored almost to virgin productiveness. 
From the earliest days to the present 
time, practica proves that nitrogen 
(ammonia) is the great crop grower. 
To command nitrogen you must have 
all the necessary salts contained in the 
various plants. The more minerals,. 
the more nitrogen you command; the 
more nitrogen you store away in your 
land, the more you can obtain from the 
atmosphere. 

Fill your land with humus, to stick 
the sand together, and to darken it. 
This will prevent its refiecting the 
heat, and will cause it to receive it 
gradually, and part with it in the same 
way. These are some of the good re- 
sults, in addition to its manurial quali- 
ties. With clay land do the same 
thing, to render it open, and make it 
ploughable at all times. Plough deep 
and subsoil. Use all possible manures 
to be had on the place, and purchase 
largely of the best manures in the mar- 
ket. Get manures, as perfect plant- 
growers as can be found ; but you must 
have ammonia and soluble bone. 



ORGANIC AND INORGANIC MANURES. 



33 



* * * I am for the plant that pre- 
serves the capital best, and pays the 
largest dividends. I have no doubt, 
that on good cotton land, a fair year, 
I could make one hundred bales of cot- 
ton, with one No. 1 mule: commence 
operations the first day of December; 
subsoil every acre; use twenty -five dol- 



lars' worth of manure per acre; and 
finish the 1st of May; cultivate sixty 
acres. 

The use of commercial fertilizers is 
incorrectly objected to by some. Dou- 
ble the productiveness of the land, and 
it will be worth four times the present 
value. 




Cotton Exhibit at State Fair. 



CHAPTER V. 



Breaking Lands. 



The principal object in brealiing land 
is to pulverize the soil, and render it 
mellow and porous. To make it suffi- 
ciently light and spongy to catch and 
retain the spring rains for the benefit 
of the summer crop, for, in cases of 
hot and dry summers, where there is 
inadequate rainfall, the growth, devel- 
opment and final maturity of the crop 
must depend upon the supply of rain- 
water stored away by the soil during 
the winter and spring rains. 

Another object is to mix the soil; to 
place the surface and richer soil deep 
under, where it will attract the crop 
roots to a depth that will protect them 
from the heat of summer's sun, and 
where they will find moisture to en- 
liven and invigorate them during the 
summer drought. 

Proper breaking of lands places the 
surface litter, and all vegetable matter 
that has accumulated upon the surface, 
deep under where they rapidly decom- 
pose and become soluble plant food. 
This process, likewise, by turning un- 
der this accumulation of litter, re- 
moves it out of the way of the cultiva- 
tor. It prevents the wasting effects of 
washing rains during the spring and 
early summer. 

The paramount object, however, in 
all breaking of land, is to so pulverize, 
mix, deepen and soften the soil as to 
enable and invite the roots of the 
planted crops to readily penetrate, tra- 
verse and permeate the soil in search 
of such specific elements of food as 
these plants need for nourishment and 



growth. The soil belongs to the planted 
crop, and should be placed in such 
favorable physical condition as will 
render all its fertile elements subser- 
vient to these crops. This consti- 
tutes the work and real design of the 
cultivator — to utilize, to the fullest pos- 
sible extent, the soil and all the adju- 
vant agencies of nature, for the produc- 
tion of luxuriant and fruitful crops. 

Land should be broken from eight to 
twelve inches. Such as has not been 
well broken, should be broken every 
year one or two inches deeper, until 
you get to the maximum, which I con- 
sider to be twelve inches, with six 
inches beyond as subsoil. 

The advantages of deep breaking are, 
that it protects the land, and enables 
it to retain moisture sufficient to carry 
the plant through any ordinary season 
of drought. I have never known a 
year, but that, with proper breaking, 
proper manuring, and surface culture, 
you would not make an average crop. 
There is no such thing as failure, when 
man does his duty in the premises. 
Providence has provided all the neces- 
sary means to make a competency. 
While the land is fresh broke and por- 
ous the roots penetrate and occupy the 
whole of the soil, and come down into 
the subsoil that is broken. During the 
cultivation, the rain on the land settles 
the soil to the roots of the plants, and 
T?nables them the more completely to 
draw all the soluble matter out of the 
earth. The settling on the roots has 
been proved valuable in more ways 



BREAKING LANDS. 



35 



than one. I will only mention the dif- 
ference in time it takes seed to come 
up when the earth is pressed closely 
to them, and when it is scattered loose- 
ly over them. They will come up in 
twenty-five to seventy-five per cent. 
less time when the earth is packed 
moderately around them. 

There is a great variety of ploughs, 
all answering nearly the same purpos^e. 
The plough that is set so as to scr.ew 
the land over with the least draft, or to 
pass it up the inclined plane or mold- 
board the easiest, is the best. Tlie 
principal objection to this kind of 
plough is its liability to break, and its 
high cost. I find the cheapest plough 
I have ever used is a wrought-iron 
turn-plough of the make of the old "Al- 
len" plough, now called by many peo- 
ple the "Dixon" turn-plough. It 
should contain from twenty to thirty 
pounds of iron, according as to wheth- 
er you wish to use one or two horses, 
and cut from seven to ten inches, as 
you may wish to use one or two horses. 

I would say, where the soil does not 
reach more than from tour to ten 
inches, I would prefer the common long- 
scooter of four to five inches width to 
subsoil with, until you obtain a depth 
of soil of from nine to twelve inches. 
The reason why I would use the 
scooter is because it mixes a portion 
of the soil every year with the subsoil. 
After a sufficient depth of soil is ob- 
tained, I should prefer ploughs that 
are known as subsoil lifters. I have 
no doubt that subsoiling every year 
would increase the crops more than if 
you subsoiled once in a rotation. I 
would prefer to subsoil every year 
for cotton, because cotton is the best 
paying crop, and you would feel the 
extra cost less. I have subsoiled for 
both corn and small grain with satis- 
factory results. 

Breaking must be commenced in 
time to do it full and well by plant- 
ing time. Usually, it should be com- 
menced by the first of December, and 
not later than the first of January. 
In this climate, on my farm in Han- 
cock county, it is best, taking ten 
years together, that the breaking be 
4one not more than ten days before 
planting time, this, however, we 
know to be impracticable in many 



cases. My reasons for late plough- 
ing are based on practical observa- 
tion. In warm, wet winters, the land 
is much damaged by washing and 
leaching, by early breaking, and runs 
together closer than it would if the 
ground had not been broken. In cold, 
dry springs and winters, I have found 
the early ploughing to do much the 
best, but from observation I find that 
we have only about one of them in 
ten years. If I lived in a cold climate, 
I would recommend to break early 
and deep, where the ground freezes 
from seven to twelve inches or over, 
where the rains are not so heavy, and 
a large portion of the time the land 
is covered with snow. In all climates 
above 36 degrees, I would give it as 
my opinion, that land would be ma- 
terially benefited by fall ploughing, 
and the further north you go on that 
line, the more benefit would be re- 
ceived from fall ploughing. The 
freezes and snows would make up for 
all the disadvantages that apply to 
the line south of 33 degrees. I do 
not consider it a question when to be- 
gin breaking land; the point is, you 
must begin in time to do the work be- 
fore planting, and take all the advan- 
tages and disadvantages that may- 
come; and the better the breaking is 
done, the easier the land is cultivated, 
and the larger the crops. I always 
consider the preparation the half, 
^and the heaviest half, of viaking the 
crop. 

No step in the whole process of ag- 
riculture can be considered so abso- 
lutely essential to successful crop- 
growing as proper and thorough prep- 
aration of the soil before planting. 
We need to turn in the surface soil 
with the vegetable matter. We want 
a large extent of soil and depth of 
pulverization, because the roots of 
plants are many times longer than 
the limbs and stalks, sometimes go- 
ing as many as five or six times the 
length of the limbs and stalks of 
corn and cotton. We want a well 
pulverized soil of sufficient depth to 
take in from the spring rains a supply 
of water sufficient to move .off the 
young crops in the spring and carry 
them safely through eight or ten 
weeks of drought. To this end, you 



36 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



must have a soil of twelve inches and 
subsoil six inches beyond. 

Now as to the method of procedure: 
Have good turning plows, and, ac- 
cording to your ability, use one or 
two horses, and subsoil behind. Ride 
over the field or plat, and lay off the 
land so that the teams will go round 
on a level, and the dirt fall down hill. 
A team will break the soil nine inches 
deep in this way as easily as 
they could seven inches on a level 
piece of land. Continue this round 
until the field is finished — one team 
following another — all the time go- 
ing round the circle. If you subsoil 
have one team between each turning 
plow — running in the bottom of the 
furrow. Finish in the middle of the 
field or cut. In this way no water 
furrows are left to be washed out 
into gullies, and the general surface 
of the field is left uniformly smooth. 

If you wish a fort to stand a hot 
and protracted attack, you must wa- 
ter and provision, as well as man it, 
in order that it may hold out until the 
siege is raised — remembering one day 
unprovided for may prove fatal; so 
if you wish a cotton plant or a corn 
stalk to stand a hot burning sun, and 
a dry northwest wind, from four to 
ten weeks, and come out safely, you 
must water and put in sufficient solu- 
ble food to last. How is that to be 
done? By deepening the soil, plough- 
ing deep, subsoiling, and filling it* 
with humus, that it may retain the 
greatest amount of water. The soil 
is like a sponge, if too porous, water 
will sink through it; if too close, it 
will hold but little. I find that humus, 
clay, and a due proportion of sand, 
constitutes the best soil, to succeed 
under all circumstances, with soluble 
plant food in abundance. 

An over estimate as to the practi- 
cal importance of deep and thorough 
breaking of lands for the cultivated 
crops can not be made. It is an ab- 
solute necessity, one of the indispens- 
ables in all necessary farming. A 
grain of corn, or seed of cotton in- 
serted into a soil of half an inch of 
depth Vill readily germinate and 
sprout up under the inspiration of 
vegetable instinct; but for want of 
depth of soil, these plants soon wilt. 



and perish away fruitless. To pro- 
duce prolific crops, or even to repro- 
duce their kind, they must have, not 
only fertile, but deep soil. Hence, we 
emphasize what we know from long 
practice and hard-earned experience. 
Plow deep; turn your land under 
from eight to twelve inches, submerg- 
ing the surface soil, with all the litter 
and vegetable matter deep under. 
Plow deep, for the purpose of well 
arid thoroughly pulverizing the soil 
and making it loose, permeable and 
tillable. Plow deep, and subsoil, to 
give your crop roots depth of range, 
and capacity of reservoir that will se- 
cure them sufficiency of moisture for 
any emergency of drought. Deepen 
your subsoiling to that extent that 
will furnish safety in any possible or 
probable peradventure, up to a ten 
weeks' drought, (see article on the 
"Cultivation of Cotton" on that point). 
The reader will permit me to recur 
to a point of importance connected 
with the subject of turning lands, 
which was omitted in it proper place. 
I allude to the popular impression, en- 
tertained by many, that it will not do 
to turn the clay subsoil to the surface, 
for the reason it will injure the land, 
and prevents the crops from growing 
off promptly. Now this is all myth; 
one inch of clay, each year, over a good 
soil, will do no harm in any land. The 
clay turned to the surface will, by op* 
eration of the chemical elements of the 
atmosphere, become vitalized, and so 
changed chemically as to assume the 
properties of the fertile soil. 
Many a red-clay fortification in Geor- 
gia, during the late war, has demon- 
strated this fact, by producing on the 
very height of the embankment the 
most luxuriant weeds. Hence the ex- 
posure of the clay to the atmosphere 
transforms it into a fertile soil, and 
thus, to that extent, deepens the soil, 
and at the same time shields the ten- 
der roots of the planted crops from 
the hot suns of early summer, and un- 
til the cultivator comes along to break 
the crust, and let in the air, light and 
heat. So, turning a stratum of sub- 
soil clay to the surface not only does 
not injure the land, but contributes 
to deepening the soil by vitalizing its 
organic elements, and making them 
productive. 



BREAKING LANDS. 



37 



1 take the ground that if my sys- 
tem be carried out as a whole, there 
is no use to break the ground but 
once a year. It requires till the first 
of May to do it right, and that is soon 
enough to finish. Then the sweep in- 
stead of the bull tongue for cultiva- 
tion. If you depend upon the latter 
you will loose two-thirds of your crop. 

An important precaution in break- 
ing lands is, never plow when the 
land is wet. Let it sufficiently dry af- 
•ter each rain to crumble and disinte- 
grate when raised by the plow. The 
soil should never be plowed when it 
is so wet as for the particles to ad- 
here or stick together in lumps. When 
thus plowed wet, the soil dries off 
hard and crusty, and to a certain ex- 



tent, loses its assimilable character, 
and hence, to that extent. Injured; 
clay soils are greatly damaged by be- 
ing plowed when wet. It must al- 
ways be remembered that the princi- 
pal object in breaking lands is pul- 
verization. 

There is no necessity for breaking 
lands a second time during the sea- 
son., or for the same crop, if it has 
been well done, and sufficient carbon 
and vegetable mold incorporated into 
the soil. Lands that have thus been 
prepared by breaking, and planted in 
crops, become the domain, the pri- 
vate territory, of these crops, and 
should not again be invaded by the 
plowshare, but left to tender culture 
of the surface cultivator. 




Good Pasture Lands. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Cultivation of Crops. 



The main objects of cultivating 
crops are, to Iteep the weeds and 
grass out from drawing the substance 
from the plants, and to keep the sur- 
face broke so as to let in light, heat 
and air. If a small amount of loose 
earth is on top, it prevents the sur- 
face from heating too rapidly below, 
and acts as a blanket to keep the 
earth from discharging the heat too 
rapidly at night. This small fine pul- 
verization on top, say from a half to 
an inch, comes to the dew point much 
earlier than a solid body, and secretes 
moisture and the elements of the at- 
mosphere much earlier in the night 
and more rapidly. It retains the ele- 
ments of the atmosphere to be wash- 
ed deeper down when it rains, and 
protects any further evaporation be- 
low the moisture until that is dis- 
charged. 

I consider it just as deleterious to, 
cut the roots of a plant as I would to 
cut the veins of an ox when 1 have 
him fattening. The object of the 
roots is to penetrate in every direc- 
tion the surface and the depth below, 
.to gather the food and send it up to 
the blades to be elaborated by them 
into food for the stalks and the grain. 
If the roots are cut off, the whole sup- 
ply of nutriment is cut off; if enough 
roots are left in deep ploughing to 
prevent the plant from dying 
straight out it may be recuperated 
for awhile, but it would have the 
same effect as putting an ox on half 
feed when he is fattening. 



Vegetable mould opens the parti- 
cles of clay, and so mellows the soil 
that the roots of the plant may easi- 
ly penetrate; and it is so closes the 
particles of sand as to enable the soil 
to retain moisture. Hence there is 
no positive necessity of breaking such 
land a second time during the same 
crop-season. To break the surface 
crust occasionally, to destroy the 
grass and weeds, and admit the at- 
mospheric gases, light and heat, is 
the object of crop culture. Hence, 
my practice of surface culture. 

The practice of root cutting is so 
absurd, and so violate of the evi- 
dent design of nature, that I have in 
all my farming, avoided the use of 
plows that cut deep enough to reach 
the roots of plants that I am cultiva- 
ting. These roots are put forth in ac- 
cordance with the laws of vegetable 
life, to collect and appropriate nutri- 
ment to the growing crops. These 
roots and fibrils permeate the soil in 
every direction, an'd to the utmost 
depths of the broken soil, and travers- 
ing entirely across the rows, instinc- 
tively seek the richer spots of soil. To 
cut these roots is simply doing vio- 
lence to nature's laws and seriously 
frustrating her designs. 

In my practice of surface-culture, I 
use a broad, shallow-cutting sweep, 
that simply breaks the crust, and run- 
ning not deeper than from half an 
inch to one inch. The following is a 
description of, and directions for mak- 
ing and using, this cultivator: 



CUL'nVATION OF CROPS. 



39 



The Dickson Sxi-eep. 

The stem should be of iron, three- 
inches wide and three-fourths of an 
inch thick. It should be cut square 
off of a bar, fourteen or fifteen and a 
half-inches long, 'leaving five and a 
half inches stem above the wing to 
come on the foot of the plough. The 
balance of the stem is to put the wing 
on, and to form the point. The use 
of the point is, that you can hold the 
sweep much more steadily, and it acts 
as a rudder to keep every little bunch 
of grass or twig from throwing it out 
of its position. I find the most valua- 
ble size to be from twenty-two to 
twenty-six inches, never less or more. 
The wings should be cut out of the 
best Swedes iron, just half the length 
of the width of the sweep. TTie width 
of the iron in the wings should be 
three and a half inches by one-half 
inch, and they should be cut diagon- 
ally across the iron, varying about 
one inch from the true line, and when 
the wings are put on, the end of the 
wings should lack very little of be- 
ing in a straight line with the upper 
end of the stem. If put square on, 
they would not discharge the dirt, on 
account of too great a slope, and they 
would dodge for every little resist- 
ance, instead of cutting it. The 
sweep should be put on the stock so 
that when power is applied on the 
end of the beam it would not be in- 
clined to go in or come out of the 
ground. They should always be kept 
sharp, if the smith has to work on 
them once a day. They will usually 
last from three to ten days without 
sharpening. 

In contra-distinction to this strict- 
ly surface-culture, the popular prac- 
tice of deep plowing with rooters or 
turn-plows — thus rebreaking the land 
at every plowing of the crop, is prac- 
tically absurd, and acts as a stunning 
blow to every crop thus treated. 

Whilst, in the preparation of the 
land for planting, the plowing should 
be — in all — eighteen inches, the culti- 
vation should not be deeper than 
above stated; but the farmer who pre- 
pares his land by breaking it eighteen 
inches deep, and cultivates six inches, 
deep, will injure his crops less than 
the farmer who prepares six inches 



deep and cultivates six inches deep. 
In the one case — the roots having 
twelve inches of prepared land to oc- 
cupy, and in the other, no space at all 
not interrupted by the root-cutter. 

Nature is exact, and puts forth no 
superfluous roots to growing plants! 
Hence every root should be spared. 

It is astonishing how quickly and 
rapidly the roots of a young plant will 
spring out, and traverse a mellow soil, 
and how speedily the tap-root will 
reach the hard subsoil beneath, and 
end its quest in that direction. Hence 
every plowing in cultivation that is 
deeper than one inch must destroy 
more or less of the plant roots; but 
under my system of preparing, plant- 
ing and cultivating, as a general re- 
mark, I cut no roots. Soils planted 
in crops, belong to these crops, and 
the cultivator has no right to invade 
it with his plowshare during the 
growth and development of these 
crops. To best promote the processes 
of nature in maturing these crops, he 
has only to break the surface crust 
occasionally to destroy extraneous 
growths and admit the light and at- 
mospheric gases to the under soil. 
This is sufl^ciently effected by the sur- 
face culture proposed, and by the 
Dickson Sweep above described. The 
true philosophy of crop cultivation re- 
quires nothing more. To violate 
this principal and practice is to dam- 
age the crops. 

Furthermore, it is great economy 
of time and labor to sweep your crops 
with a twenty-two inch sweep instead 
of breaking again, and everv three 
weeks with a bull-tongue three or 
four inches wide. CuJtivation with 
such an implement, makes dividends 
impossible. There is no use for the 
second breaking with bull-tongue or 
rooters to make the most out of 
land or labor. The sweep will give 
you larger dividends because you can 
cultivate a much larger area, and do it 
upon more conservative principles. 

It is not only important that the 
plowing of crops should be done shal- 
low, so that the roots of the plants 
may escape cutting, but the same care 
and tenderness should be observed in 
the hoeing of crops. The term "chop- 
ping cotton" should be expunged 
from -the farmer's vocabulary. Cot- 



40 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



ton should be thinned by shaving out 
across the drill — and not dug out by 
'chopping.' Let the hoe pass level 
through the drill, and just deep 
enough to shave off the cotton and 
grass, barely breaking the surface 
crust, and finish the thinning with 
the hand, if necessary. The ridge or 
bed should not ^e rudely chopped 
down leaving the tender roots of the 
cotton bare, or in a crippled or fall- 
ing condition. To break up its at- 



tachments to the soil, leave it in a 
tottering condition, or cut off its tap- 
roots just under the crust soil, is posi- 
tively hurtful to the plants. It crip- 
ples and stunts them, and they often 
perish. I repeat, shave lightly and 
do not dig about your plants. 

The same is true of other crops. 
Digging about corn, to hill it, is of- 
ten hurtful. Deep ploughing, or dig- 
ging about, forking or spading crops 
in the cultivation, is all wrong. 




Proper Cultivation. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Cultivation of Corn. 



Preparation of the Land. 

If you cover deep you lose all the 
advantages of deep planting (but not 
deep breaking) ; and for this reason 
— corn, in good weather, will come up 
from a depth of one to six inches, but 
will strike out roots about one inch 
from the surface of the ground, *and 
all below that will perish. That is 
one reason why I am opposed to dirt- 
ing corn as it comes up. It brings 
the roots of the stalk to the top of 
the ground. " 

If any hills should be missing, it 
should be immediately replanted as 
soon as the corn comes up, and it will 
be just as forward as the other corn. 
If more than one grain be dropped, 
just as soon as the stalks have three 
blades they should be thinned to one 
— never having more than one stalk 
in a hill. 

Cultivation. 

It is not necessary to commence 
working corn before the 20th of April 
to the 1st of May. One reason for 
this is that earlier working is a loss 
of time, and if the corn plant is hilled 
up before there are lateral roots to it, 
the plant roots all below an inch or 
inch and a half will perish, thereby 
losing all the advantages of putting 
the corn in deep, but no loss from the 
deep preparation. My plan is to fin- 
ish working from the ^Oth of April to 
the 25th of May. With the land well 
turned very little grass and weeds 
will come up, except in the bottom of 



the furrow, which will be easily man- 
aged. 

First Working. — I would side with a 
twenty-two inch sweep, the back of 
the right wing elevated about one 
inch and a quarter, so as to sift in dirt 
to make it about an inch of being on 
a level with the common surface. The 
middle can be broken with the same 
size sweep, the back of both wings 
elevated, finishing out the seven feet 
with four furrows. A horse should 
plough three and a half acres a day, 
and four hands completing fourteen 
acres every day, by going sixteen 
miles a day. 

Second Ploughing. — This work, if 
well done, will stand from three to 
four weeks. It should be ploughed 
just as at first, with the right wing of 
the sweep a little more elevated, run- 
ning very close to the corn — leaving 
a perfectly level surface, and finish- 
ing out the middle with three furrows. 
Add a fifth furrow for making a good 
place for planting peas. Five horses 
should plough fourteen acres a day. 
If the plowing be well done there is 
no use for a hoe. 

Planting Peas. 
From the 1st to the 20th of June is 
the time to plant peas. This should 
be between the second and third 
ploughing — running a shovel furrow 
in the middle of the corn rows. One 
hand can drop for one plough. Drop 
six or seven peas a distance of not 
over two feet — covering with a har- 
row. Two hands and one dropper 



42 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



will plant sixteen acres per day. If 
the farmer can. spare the time and 
means it will pay to guano his peas. 
Third Ploughing. — This is to be the 
last and final ploughing. It should 
not exceed half an inch in depth. Side 
the corn with a twenty-two inch 
sweep, the right wing elevated, and 
the left wing one-half elevated. Side 
the peas with a twenty-six inch sweep, 
the right wing half elevated, the left 
wing elevated, going a half-inch deep. 
If this be well done, it leaves a beau- 
tiful inch of surface — not a bunch of 
grass in the pea or corn row. No hoe 
hands are ever needed in the cultiva- 
tion if the plough hand does his duty. 
Should the hand who sides the corn 
leave a bunch of grass, he should get 
it with his hand or foot. This will 
make him more careful to do the 
work right; and he can go his sixteen 
and two-thirds miles a day, take care 
of his horse, and do everything that 
is necessary to be done. 

This is the last ploughing; if well 
done, the ground will be almost as 
smooth and level as a floor, with not 
a sprig of grass to the two hundred 
acres, nor a weed to be seen in the 
field. In old times, I required every 
hand to clean the crop as he went — 
what the plough left, to be removed 
with the foot and hand. From thir- 
teen to sixteen miles, according to the 
condition of the crop, was a day's 
work. 

Such pine land as mine (some of 
it very poor) should make from twen- 
ty to twenty -five bushels per acre; 
and wet or dry, if the work is right- 
ly done, there is no such thing as a 
failure. 

All the labor required to cultivate 
corn is less than one day per acre; 
requiring only thirteen days to culti- 
vate fourteen acres; and if well done, 
it will get the largest crop out of the 
land that is possible to get any one 
year. To plant the pea crop costs 
only one-eighth of a day per acre in 
the ploughing, and one-sixteenth of a 
day's work per acre to drop it. This 
will make the corn and pea crop, af- 
ter the land has been prepared, re- 
quire only one day's work per acre. 

The reader will note in the above 
account of my plan of corn culture — 



a practical solution of the proposi- 
tion — "do not cut the roots of growing 
crops." 

In the first ploughing, the sweep 
did not reach within several inches 
of the surface roots of the corn. 
Hence, not a root . was touched. In 
the second ploughing, the sweep is to 
run not exceeding one inch deep. 
This one inch will not reach even the 
surface around the corn, and its roots 
being below, can not be reached by a 
plough running one inch deep — so, the 
roots have escaped the two first 
ploughings. The third and last 
ploughing goes only half an inch deep, 
and hence misses the plant roots 
again, and not a root has been cut 
during the entire cultivation of the 
crop. 

Clay lands will bear the same treat- 
ment as sandy lands, with the same 
result, and with less difficulty. If you 
have two hogs fattening, one white, 
representing sandy land, the other 
red, representing red land, and you 
cut .the veins and let out the blood 
every two or three weeks, the resul*" 
would be the same — just so cutting 
the roots of corn every two or three 
weeks, on red or sandy land, would 
involve the same loss. I do not care 
what color your land is, or whether 
sand or clay, if you keep up a full sup- 
ply of vegetable mold, break deep be- 
fore planting, and cultivate lightly 
afterwards, the same results will be 
good, wet or dry. 

This method of deep planting and 
shallow covering forces the plants to 
take root deeply- — at the bottom of 
the mellow soil, which retains mois- 
ture for a long time without addition- 
al rains; and, hence, I say tliat I can 
make an average crop of corn with 
one or two rains after it comes up. 
The ample distance I give corn, like- 
wise helps to economize the water 
supply and keep the crops green and 
growing during drought. 

The most palpable sources of fail- • 
ure in the production of the corn crop 
are four-fold: 

1st. Not keeping a sufficient quan- 
tity of vegetable mold in the land. 

2d. Ploughing too shallow in pre- 
paring for the crop. 

3d. Planting too thick. 

4th. Cultivating too deep. 



CULTIVATION OF CORN. 



43 



"With slave labor before the war, 
my last crop was as follows: On one 
thousand acres of thin pine land, 
eighteen bushels of corn per acre was 
the lowest average. The highest 
average I ever made on this land was 
twenty-six bushels and one peck per 
acre. The lowest acre produced 
twelve bushels, and the highest thir- 
ty-eight bushels on upland, with two 
thousand stalks per acre. It was 
easy to find ears of corn that weighed 
twenty ounces. 

Pulling Blades. 

There is great diversity of opinion 
as to the pulling of fodder. I have 
foimd by practice, that if the "Com- 
pound" is used, especially salt and 
plaster, the corn will be fully ma- 
tured before the fodder begins to 
damage, and it will be much heavier 
than if it w'as not used, and there will 
be no loss of corn whatever from pull- 
ing the blades. There is no food that 
stock like better than well-matured 
fodder, nicely cured. Those who 
have a different opinion, and have 
made a test of the corn, have always 
pulled the fodder too soon. The ob- 
ject is, first, to cultivate corn for the 
sake of the corn; and when the corn 
has made all it can make, there can be 
no objection to saving the fodder. 

With deep preparation, liberal ma- 
nuring, and the ground kept clean 
by shaving off the grass with the 
sweep, the corn will be made and 
hard, while the fodder is still green 
and good. Then the fodder may be 
pulled off without hurting the corn in 
the least. Fodder may be kept green 
on the stalk two or three weeks after 
the corn is hard, by using salt and 
plaster around the hill as a manure. 
There is no better food for stock than 
fodder well saved. 

Preserving Corn. 

Having been often called upon to 
answer the question, how to preserve 
corn, and not having had time to an- 
swer such letters, I will give my prac- 
tice. No other corn can be kept long 
but sound, pure corn. Use the yel- 
low flint variety for long keeping. 
That corn you wish to keep the long- 
est, let it thoroughly cure in the 
field, pull it when^it is thoroughly dry, 
from the middle *of November to the 



middle of December, put into a dark 
house, fill it full. This corn will stay 
till you use it. I should have men- 
tioned that I always put it up in 
shuck, put it in as close as possible; 
and if a rat-proof house is used, so 
much the better. 

Time for Planting. 

In deciding this question, you must 
be governed by the season and the 
weather. From the 10th of March to 
the 1st of April, corn planting may be 
commenced. A mild and favorable 
winter, with flattering indications of 
opening spring, will invite you to com- 
mence your planting as early as the 
10th of March. But should the spring 
be a little late, the ground still cold, 
and the weather unfavorable, you may 
safely and with better policy, defer 
planting till the middle, 20th, or 
even to the last of March. These in- 
structions apply to sections on or 
near the .33d degree north latitude. 
Of «ourse, further south corn can be 
planted earlier; and further north 
much later. According to my expe- 
rience, the farmer only gains hard 
work and more of it, by very early 
planling. 

In the Southern and Middle States, 
the corn-growing season is abundantly 
long to allow the planter to select 
his planting time. Corn is an annual, 
and under proper system of culture 
makes and matures its crop speedily. 
Planted while the ground is still cold, 
it does not spring up and grow off 
promptly; but the plant, loitering for 
want of warm sun and soil, becomes 
puny and more or less stunted in its 
growth, and can never make such a 
luxuriant crop as when it gi'ows oft 
promptly. There is no sense in plant- 
ing a summer crop in the winter. As 
a single crop, to make the heaviest 
yield, I would plant in April, but only 
advise the earlier planting to con- 
form its culture to the combined 
schedule of corn and cotton together. 
The best crop I ever made was plan- 
ted about the first of May. 

Distance. 

The first thing is to settle the capac- 
ity of your land to produce corn, as to 
the number of bushels in an ordinary 
year, and never exceed one hundred 



44 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



and thirty-three stalks to the bushel. 
Seventy-five stalks can be made to 
yield a bushel, and I have made a 
bushel off of fifty stalks the field over. 
Taking land that will make from ten 
to thirty bushels of corn to the acre, 
I would have rows seven feet apart, 
and drop the grains three feet dis- 
tant in the distance given above, there 
will be twenty-one square feet for each 
stalk of corn. If there should be enough 
soluble matter in that space for two or 
even three ears, one stalk will take it 
up; but if there is only matter enough 
for one ear of corn, and you put two 
stalks, and water is scarce at earing 
time, you will miss gathering — even 
that one ear. Again, if it be a dry 
year, thin planting will always beat; 
and corn always commands a better 
price such years. 

The higher the latitude where corn 
will ripen before frost the thicker it 
may be planted, and the more it will 
make per acre — other things being 
equal. But I contend that two thou- 
sand stalks are enough for one acre in 
the latitude of Middle Georgia. Under 
no circumstances would I advise more 
than one hundred and thirty-three 
stalks to the bushel of corn the land 
ought to make per acre. I have made 
one bushel of corn for every fifty-two 
stalks in the field. In planting richer 
lands, that would bear say three 
thousand stalks or more per acre, I 
would lay the rows six feet one way 
and regulate the distance in the drill, 
so as to give the number of stalks de- 
sired. 



The most universal, fatal error in 
raising corn is, planting it too thick! 
Give it distance, and seek to make ear 
not stalk — grain instead of fodder. 

Planting. 

Lay off your rows with a long 
shovel plow, on a level, seven feet 
apart. Commence at the opposite 
end with a longer shovel, and open 
out the same furrow. The reason for 
running this second furrow in the op- 
posite direction is, you get up to the 
trees and stumps, and make a better 
finish at the end. 

Whether you use compost, cotton- 
seed, guano or my compound, let 
each hand have a three-foot measure, 
and by it deposit the manure in the 
bottom of the furrow just three feet 
apart. Then drop the corn within 
three or four inches from the manure 
— one or more grains in the hill — 
dropping on the near side of the ma- 
nure as the dropper goes. With a 
very light harrow, cover the corn one 
or one and a half-inches deep. The 
harrow should go the same way the 
dropper goes to keep from pulling the 
manure on the grain, and thus de- 
stroying its germinating powers. 

The corn is now in the ground eight 
inches deep, and covered from one to 
one and a half inches. It will germi- 
nate and quickly come up, and send 
out not only its tap-root to the depth 
of broken soil, but lateral roots in 
every direction seven inches below 
the common surface. 




Peanut, Natural Size — A Fine Crop for Hogs. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Cultivation of Cotton. 



Distance of rows. — As, in my plan 
of preparing land for corn and lay- 
ing off the rows, the question of dis- 
tance occurs. My early impressions, 
dictated by reason and knowledge of 
the natural history of the cotton plant, 
its nature, habits, etc., decided me to 
give the crop good distance in the 
row, to allow room for proper culti- 
vation, and free access of air and sun- 
light to this sun-plant. 

I prefer to have my rows wide 
apart, and leave the plants thick in 
the drill, for this reason: All land 
has its capacity, with or without ma- 
nure, but greater in proportion to ma- 
nuring and deep preparation, to sus- 
tain a certain number of plants. The 
cotton plants, when still small, com- 
mence to take on and mature bolls, 
and continue until they exhaust the 
soluble matter, or reach the full ca- 
pacity of the land. Two stalks will 
do that much sooner than one, and 
will so avoid late droughts, caterpil- 
lar, boll-worm and early frosts. For 
all good medium and thin grades of 
lands I find that four feet is near 
enough to have the rows; richer lands 
require more distance. 

In very rich land the distance be- 
tween the rows may be from four to 
six feet; probably some of the Mis- 
sissippi bottoms may want eight feet. 
No land is so poor that the rows of 
cotton should be nearer than four feet. 
If you have not land enough to plant 
as much as you wish, purchase more. 
A four foot row will make more than 



a three foot row; it is just as easy 
cultivated, if the season is favorable, 
and more easy if they are not. 

Preparation. — With large shovel 
plough lay off your rows four feet 
apart, running them as near on a level 
as possible. Run a second furrow 
with same size but longer shovel, in 
the bottom of the same row, opening 
it well out and to the depth of seven 
or eight inches. In this furrow de- 
posit the fertilizer intended to be 
used, with the hand or fertilizer 
sower, at the rate of from four hun- 
dred to a thousand pounds per acre. 
With a long scooter plough, run 
deeply on each side of this row, cover- 
ing the manure and leaving a imall, 
sharp ridge in the center. Run the 
same plough deeply in these furrows 
a second time, or, a good subsoil 
plough, if preferred. Now. with a good 
turnplough. run on the sid(> of each of 
these scooter furrows, and scooter 
furrows in each of these turn-plough 
furrows. Split out the remaining 
middle with a large shovel as deep as 
the team will pull it. That finishes 
the bed. Continue this process the 
field over; nine furrows finishing 
each row. It will leave a broad, flat 
bed, just over the middle of which 
the seed are to be planted. 

I will now give you a plan that will 
carry the cotton plant through eight 
or ten weeks of drought with safety, 
and enable it to get ahead of the cat- 
erpillar — the boll-worm may come 
too soon for a full crop — but one need 



46 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



not fear the caterpillar, if they do not 
come before the first of September. 
Always remember the soil must be 
good and deep and subsoiled six inches 
deeper, and furnished with a good sup- 
ply of guano, dissolved bones, plaster 
and salt. A cotton plant to stand two 
weeks must have four inches of 
soil and six inches subsoil; three 
weeks, six inches soil, same sub- 
soiling; four weeks, eight inches, 
same subsoiling; and for every week 
of dry weather, you will need an ad- 
ditional inch, with the same six inches 
subsoil, broken below. So, you will 
see, to stand a ten weeks' drouth you 
must have a soil sixteen inches 'deep, 
with six inches broken below. 

This plan will hold the forms and 
bolls during the whole time, and not 
give them up when it rains; but 
should you not prepare right, and your 
supplies give out, or surrender one 
week before reinforcements come, in 
form of water, much is lost, and it 
may be too late to start anew. If you 
prepare and carry out this plan well, 
you may expect from four hundred to 
twelve hundred pounds of lint cotton 
per acre, according to the character 
of the laud, locality, etc. 

Time for Planting. — From the 10th 
to the 25th of April, I consider the 
best time for planting cotton in this 
latitude. But, in round numbers, any 
time from the first of April to the 15th 
of May will do to plant cotton. You 
may plant with high manuring as 
late even as the first of June. By ex- 
tending your planting over the long- 
est periods, you can raise the larg- 
est crops, the bulk being put in about 
the 15th or 20th of April. The 
earlier cotton is planted the lighter 
it must be covered. 

Planting. — When the proper time 
arrives, and the land is ready, open 
with a short bull-tongue, sow the seed 
with hand, and cover with a light har- 
row. But a cotton planter is prefera- 
ble. When this is used it finishes the 
whole operation at once — opening, 
dropping and covering the seed. 

First Working. — In the first working 
of the cotton, side with a twenty-two- 
inch sweep — with the right wing tol- 
erably flat, going very close to the 
plant, and not exceeding a half inch 



in depth in the plowing. Let the 
sweep be sharp. 

In ten days, commence hoeing witli 
a sharp. No. 2 Scovill hoe, scraping 
through the drill very lightly, and 
leaving from two to three stalks in 
the hill, the width of the hoe. I pre- 
fer two stalks in a hill. Leave no 
grass to bunch and cause a future bad 
stand. In many instances, it is best, 
when half over the first time, to turn 
back and clean what has been hoed. 
The shaving of the grass with the hoe 
will act as a second working of the 
crop. It will always be safe, if you 
can, to return to the cotton once in 
three weeks. 

Do not chop out cotton but shave 
it out with the hoe. You must not 
dig down about its roots, but scrape 
it off, not tearing up the soil around 
it and exposing its roots to the sun. 

Second Working. — At the end of 
about three weeks, side your cotton 
again with the same twenty-two-inch 
sweep, the right wing a little up, run- 
ning close to the row, and shallow. 
Cotton ought to be ploughed about 
every three weeks. If the work be 
well done, it will, in most cases, stand 
four weeks. By this plan the cotton 
will be kept clean, and get the advan- 
tage of frequent stirring, which should 
be surface stirring. Continue plough- 
ing till the 15th to 20th of August, nor 
more than one-eighth to one-quarter 
inch deep, and in the same manner, 
and with the same sweep as for first 
and second ploughing. Once or twice 
during the season run out the middle 
with one furrow to keep the land 
level. 

Cotton may be made with two to 
three ploughings. Four sidings and 
two middle splittings are all that it 
ever wants under the most favorable 
circumstances. The greatest amount 
of work the cotton requires is only 
ten furrows to the row for all culti- 
vation. The whole ploughing occu- 
pies just one and a fourth day's work 
per acre, under favorable circum- 
stances; and it may be completed 
with three-fourth day's work per acre. 
It is essential that each of those 
ploughings should be done very shal- 
low and close, never stopping for dry 
weather. If the ground stays wet, 



CULTIVATION OF COTTON. 



47 



you may stop a few hours and hoe. 
The hoeing and ploughi-ag during the 
cultivation of the crop closes up the 
land sufficiently to cause the fruit to 
set finely. At the beginning of the 
planting it was sufficiently porous for 
the roots to penetrate in every direc- 
tion, and to any desired depth. The 
cotton plant is like the cultivated 
plum or cherry, requiring the land to 
be pretty close around the roots to 
set its fruit well, and prevent its 
drowning in excessive rains. To 
cause early maturity the rows of the 
cotton should be one way four feet 
apart, and there should be from two 
to three stalks in a hill, at the dis- 
tance of every nine inches. When the 
cotton fruit commences to bloom, 
each stalk will bloom and take on 
just as many bolls as if there were 
only three stalks to the yard. This 
system, stated above, will insure 
eight stalks to the yard, if hoed with 
care, which is one hundred and sixty- 
six per cent, more stalks than if one 
stalk is left for every twelve inches. 
By placing the stalks thick in the 
drill, and wide apart, the land is less 
shaded, and gets more light and sun. 
If you wish to shade with a given 
number of plants, the more equally 
the land is divided the more com- 
pletely it is shaded. 

Prepared, manured, planted and 
cultivated, as directed, there never 
J has been any reason, any year, to pre- 
vent you from having a good average 
crop. The driest year I have ever 
known has satisfied me of this fact. 
If you pursue the above plan, and get 
three favorable weeks from the 20th 
of July, you will get a good average 
crop. Thin planting, as a general 
thing, latens the crop. If seasons 
have been regular, and the above di- 
rections have been carried out, the 
plant will be completely checked by 
the 20th of August, and need no top- 
ping. Topping is advantageous where 
we find the bolls have not come on 
soon enough, and, if topped, should 
be done from the 5th to the 10th of 
August. 

The heavier the cotton bolls the 
more care is necessary, by previous 
preparation and manuring, to sustain 
the plant. Care should also be taken 



not to skin or bruise the shanks of 
the cotton with the hoe. The hoe 
should never be raised more than 
eight inches from the ground to hoe 
cotton. The hoe should be kept 
sharp, and grass should be cut just 
below the crown. Scratch out the 
word chop, and use the word hoe or 
scrape. This matures cotton earlier, 
and renders it less likely to be dam- 
aged by boll-worms and caterpillars, 
Rust in Cotton. 

Rust is simply poverty' of the land. 
This poverty is produced from vari- 
ous causes, such as wet lands that 
leach, lands that are too porous to 
hold water, that receive too much 
rain at one time and get too dry at 
another, and letting it get grassy so 
as to rob the plant of what little 
nourishment that is there. The hilly, 
sandy land can be improved by mix- 
ing with them a vegetable mold, and 
using a sufficient quantity of "Dick- 
son's Compound" with surface cul- 
ture. The wet lands have to be 
drained to increase their fertility. 
Red and post-oak lands that are suf- 
ficiently dry need nothing but enrich- 
ing; and the true system for every- 
body is, to make the land as near vir- 
gin soil as possible. I have never 
known in this section new lands to 
rust. The black prairie lands I am not 
acquainted with, but I understand 
they are liable to rust; but I believe 
the same system of keeping them full 
of vegetable mold up to the virgin 
standard, and the use of the "Com- 
pound" manure, would succeed in 
making cotton in them. The sul- 
phuric acid that is in the plaster 
might to some extent supply the place 
of carbonic acid that is deficient by 
long cultivation. The above is true 
in my practice. As to the black prai- 
rie land, it is a mere suggestion, but 
I believe that it will succeed. 
Picking Cotton. 

Picking should commence as early 
as the cotton commences opening, 
and the cotton should always be sun- 
ned when picked before the seed ma- 
tures or hardens. If the crop ap- 
pears to be large, it will have to be 
picked by the hands. Hurry them 
up; admit a little trash to increase 
the quantity picked. The falling off 



48 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



in price by picking a little trash, is 
not so disastrous as to let the cotton 
stay and waste, and turn black for the 
sake of picking it clean. 

No system can prosper without 
teaching all the operatives and labor- 
ers to be experts, whether agricultu- 
ral, or manufacturing, or anything 
that is done requiring labor. The 
first thing to do, in regard to any of 
the operations of labor, is to teach the 
laborers how to do it; the next thing, 
to do it with more ease' and efficiency, 
and to learn to do better and better 
work every day. For instance, take a 
boll of cotton. They must be taught, 
with the greatest speed, how to throw 
the hand into the boll, and to pull out 
all of the cotton with one lick, not 
waiting to see whether any was left in 
the boll or not, always having in mind 
to strike but one lick at a boll, and as 
soon as that is done to strike at 
another boll. I have, in five minutes, 
learned a hand to pick one hundred 
pounds more of cotton per day than 
he had picked on the previous day, 
and from that point he will continue 
to improve. The greatest efficiency I 
have obtained in hands picking cot- 
ton was seven hundred pounds — equal 
to three good bales a week. 

Selection of Cotton Seed. 

To raise cotton for seed, the best 
boiling plants should be selected that 
is on the plantation. Manure it well, 
and cultivate as directed above. Plant 
in it the most select seed on hand, 
and in working the cotton you should 
always pull up the stalks that prove 
unprolific, even if it makes a vacuum. 
When matured, from the second and 
third pickings, select the best stalks, 
those that have limbs sufficiently well 
to contain from six to seven bolls 
from a half inch to an inch apart. 
The best known variety to commence 
with is the "Dickson's Select." this 
variety having outlived every other 
in productiveness and popularity. 

The cotton for seed should be 
picked when dry, and put up when 
dry. This will always insure a 
healthy plant. If the seed is partially 
damaged, the plant will continue to 
die out for weeks after it comes up. 



and sometimes fail even to make its 
appearance after sprouting. 

I would select cotton for seed every 
year. Select enough every year to 
plant to make seed to plant the entire 
crop the succeeding year. 

There is a belt of land running 
through Georgia and other Cotton 
States, that I consider the home of the 
cotton plant — possibly the bottoms in 
the West may be better adapted to it. 
The southern line commences in Geor- 
gia above Augusta, and ends just above 
Columbus, embracing the Southern 
granitic region — mulatto, pine, and 
oak and hickory lands, and extending 
about one degree north. I prefer the 
southern part of this belt. The north 
end of my farm in included in this 
southern part.. Planters living south 
of this line, would do well to obtain 
seed from this region once in three or 
four years. South of this belt, the cot- 
ton plant is inclined to produce too 
much weed and too little fruit. In it, 
with proper preparation, rotation, ma- 
nure and rest, you can make the cotton 
plant just what you please, as gentle- 
men from all parts of Georgia can 
testify, who have seen my crop — mak- 
ing two bales per acre on cotton from 
twenty-six to twenty-eight inches 
high. 

To improve the cotton plant, you 
should select seed every year, imme- 
diately after the first picking, up to 
the middle of October, selecting (in 
the case of Dickson seed) from stalks 
that send out one or more suckers 
near the ground, sometimes called 
arms. These arms need not be looked 
for on poor land. Secondly, from 
those that send out limbs thick with 
three to six bolls, from a half-inch to 
one and a half-inch apart on the 
limbs. If you do not keep your land 
well charged with humus, the cotton 
limbs will be too short; if you cut 
the cotton roots, you will make stalks 
instead of bolls. On all farms there 
are some acres that produce cotton 
better than others. Seed for plant- 
ing should always be selected from 
these spots. 

Thinking it best to tell what I have 



CULTIVAxfON OF COTTON. 



49 



done, instead of giving advice that 
I do not follow, I will give you tiie de- 
tails of the preparation, manuring, 
planting, cultivation and production 
of a sixteen-acre lot, planted in cot- 
ton; and as many may desire to know 
all the particulars, I will be explicit 
as I can be in a letter. 

First, the land is good pine land, 
and has been under the plough nearly 
seventy years, and as many as fifty- 
five years in cotton. About twelve 
years ago, it was sown in oats, with 
two hundred pounds of guano and 
bones mixed with salt and plaster, 
and made thirty or thirty-five bushels 
per acre — all fed off my turning stock 
in the field. Four years ago, I left it 
uncultivated until the middle of July; 
there was then a heavy growth of 
weeds on it, just grown. I turned 
them in, and dropped peas in every 
third furrow. The result was a large 
crop of vines, and at least fifteen 
bushels of peas per acre. These were 
fed off by beef cattle. 

That, if you call it rest, is all the 
field ever had. The lot lies between 
two branches, running north and 
south; on one slope, next to the 
branch, is a second growth of pines; 
the other is a peach orchard. The 
cotton was planted on the top of a 
level ridge, lying within one-fourth 
to one-half of a mile of Little Ogee- 
chee. It was planted in cotton in 
1866 — manured with about one hun- 
dred and fifty pounds of bones and 
Peruvian guano each, and one hun- 
dred pounds of plaster. I commenced 
third day of May, with two horses, to 
prepare the land; cotton rows four 
feet apart; ran two furrows in the 
middle of each row, which stood open 
about eight-inches deep, an'd applied 
to each acre two hundred and fifty 
pounds soluble bones, one hundred 
and sixty-five pounds No. 1 Peruvian 
guano, and one hundred pounds of 
plaster. Salt being too high, I omitted 
that. The mixture was deposited 
in the bottom of the furrow; then 
covered with a long scooter plough. 



going about as deep as the other 
two furrows; then covered with a long 
scooter plough, going about as deep 
on the side of each scooter furrow, 
with a good turning-plough, going 
seven inches deep. After preparing 
about six acres in this way, I opened 
with a small buU-tongued plough;, 
dropped the seed and covered lightly 
with a board, part of it with a har- 
row. I continued in this way until 
the lot was planted, finishing the 15th 
of May. The land being freshly pre- 
pared, and a little dry, it did not come 
up well. The 25th of May, had a 
fine shower, and on the first morning 
of June I turned the ploughs back to 
finish the preparation, running a 
scooter, twelve inches long, in the bot- 
tom of each turn-plough furrow, going 
seven inches deeper; then ploughed 
up the old stalks with a large, long 
shovel plough, going under the old 
cotton stalks — making nine furrows 
to the row in preparing the land, tak- 
ing nine days, with one horse, for 
every eight acres, which was equal 
to a full subsoiling. You observe 
that the preparation was not expen- 
sive. Including planting, it was 
eleven days" work to eight acres. 

The cotton soon stretched up well. 
The first ploughing was done with a 
heavy twenty-two inch sweep (right 
wing towards the end nearly flat, the 
back edge of the wing about one and 
a fourth of an inch above the front 
edge in elevation). I then hoed out 
to a stand, the width of a No. 2 Sco- 
ville hoe, leaving one to three stalks 
in a hill. Cotton standing thick in 
the drill will be more forward than 
that which is thin. Give it the neces- 
sary distance between the rows. 

The second ploughing was done 
with the same kind of sweep, with 
both wings elevated. The second 
and last hoeing followed in a few 
days. The third ploughing ran one 
furrow in the middle of the rows. 
The cultivation with the plough occu- 
pied one horse five days for each 
eight acres, which makes two days 
ploughing for each acre, and about 
two days hoeing for the same. 



50 



DICKSON'S SYSTEk OF FARMING. 



The cotton grew so rapidly, it did 
not need any more work. I hired the 
picking of most of it, at forty cents 
per hundred pounds. The lot aver- 
aged about three thousand (3,000) 
pounds per acre, but owing to a 
storm and other causes, I gathered 
only twenty-seven hundred (2,700) 
pounds and a fraction, which will 
make two good bales to the acre. I 
picked out one hundred bolls in two 
separate parts of the lot, at four 
o'clock in the evening of a dry day. 
Each weighed twenty-one ounces. In 
the lot was an Irish potato patch that 
had been manured and mulched with 
straw twice. I think that portion 
made at the rate of six thousand 
pounds per acre. The next best 
place was about one acre of old pine 
field, first year, which made, I think, 
about five thousand pounds. 

If you expect such results, you must 
not cut the roots of the cotton. Cot- 
ton is a sun-plant, as you will see by 
it turning its leaves to the sun, as the 
latter moves through the heavens. 
So have a deep water furrow in the 
spring, work flat by hot weather, and 
on level land run the rows north and 
south. 

The cotton would have been much 
bettor, planted the 10th of April. The 
seasons were as fine as they could be 
up to the 28th of July. After that, 
too much rain. The hands I had 
were all new, and very sorry; the 
manure was badly mixed and badly 
put on. 

I found during the wet weather, 
where the most manure was put, it 
stood the test best — especially the 
part that had the most Peruvian gu- 
ano on it. There was some rot, ow- 
ing to the density of foliage and wet 
weather; some boll-worm and cater- 
pillar on about one-half of the patch. 

The result of this experiment on 
sixteen acres of land, manured with 
250 pounds soluble bones, 165 pounds 
Peruvian guano, and 100 pounds land 
plaster, per acre, was as follows : It 
made 32 bales of cotton, the last one 
being a bale and a half. The crop 
selling for $125.00 per bale brought 
$4,000, a net dividend of one thou- 
sand dollars and more per acre. The 
following is an itemized statement of 



actual expenses and calculation as to 
net proceeds : 

Below is the cost of one acre: 

COST OF MAISTURE AT PLAJS'TATIOX. 

250 pounds soluble bones .... $8.25 

165 lbs. No. 1 Peruvian Guano. 6.25 

100 pounds of plaster 1.25 

Mixing and putting on 25 

. $17.00 

Horse 2 days, $1 per day $2.00 

Plough hand, 2 days, .50 per day 1.00 

Hoe hand, 2 days, .50 per day . . 1.00 

Dropping seed 25 

Picking 10.80 

Manure 17.00 



Whole expense per acre ....$32.05 

XET PROCEEDS. 

Proceed sales of 32 bales . .$4,000.00 
Less expenses $32.05 per acre 502.20 



Clear dividends $3,487.20 

This shows a clear dividend, per 
acre, of $217.95 * * With slave labor, 
my cotton crops averaged from ten to 
twelve bales per hand, with other 
crops in proportion. 

I am for the plan that preserves the 
capital best, and pays the largest divi- 
dends. I have no doubt, that on good 
cotton land, a fair year, I could make 
one hundred bales of cotton, with one 
No. 1 mule: Commence operations 
the first day of December; subsoil 
every acre; use twenty-five dollars' 
worth of manure per acre; and finish 
planting the 1st of May; cultivate 
sixty acres. 

Note by the Editor. 
For the purpose of illustrating cer- 
tain points in the teachings of Mr. 
Dickson, I desire to report a field of 
cotton, that I visited on his original 
farm — a part of the 266 acres upon 
which he first started farming, and 
which cost him fifty cents per acre. 
This field of cotton had been planted 
on the 13th of June. Every boll, to 
the very topmost was open, with beau- 
tiful white cotton. Not a green boll was . 
to be seen, and as not a boll had been 
picked, it was, indeed a beauty, and 
looked like a snow-bank. 

As stated, this crop was planted 
on the 13th day of June, and I saw it 
on the 10th day of November. The 
crop had grow.n, matured and opened. 



CULTIVATION OF COTTON. 



51 



to the last top boll, before the 10th of 
November. By actual count, it had 
on it 1,400 pounds per acre — nearly 
a bale. This land was a blowing 
sand, without clay subsoil, the lowest 
grade of land known to Middle Geor- 
gia. It had refused to yield a living 
to its owner, and he had sold it for the 
paltry sum of flftiy cents per acre, and 
moved off to keep from starving. 

This field of cotton, which I remem- 
ber was about twenty acres, had been 
treated^ planted and cultivated by 
Mr. Dickson, and fertilized to the ex- 
tent of about $15 per acre. Cotton 
was then selling for about 20 per 
pound. Hence, this 20 acre field netted 
him fifteen hundred dollars, less the ex- 
pense of cultivation. Now, what does 
this crop demonstrate? 

1st. That, under proper treatment,. 
culture and fertilization, paying crops 



can be grown upon poor lands, even 
upon blowing sand, which is the very 
lowest grade. 

2d. That the seasons in this lati- 
tude are sulficiently long for the cot- 
ton crop, and that the planting may 
be delayed, even to the 13th day of 
June, with the possibility of a full 
crop. It shows the folly of planting 
summer crops in the winter. 

3d. That even the very lowest 
grades of land can be made to pro- 
duce paying crops by liberal use of 
commercial fertilizers, with proper 
culture. 

4th. That real success in farming 
depends not so much upon the quality 
and strength of the land as upon the 
scientific attainments and executive 
ability of the farmer who cultivates 

it. EUITOR. 




A Country Home. 



(JHAPTER IX. 



Growing Wheat. 



Wheat, as all other annual crops 
requires deep, mellow and productive 
soil, and hence deep preparation is 
indispensable to large crops. The 
popular impression, that wheat is a 
surface root plant, and requires no 
deep breaking or subsoiling, leads to 
practical error and failure in the cul- 
ture of this crop. These advocates 
claim that for wheat the surface soil 
should not be turned under, nor 
should the subsoil be broken, because 
the plant is supported in its growth 
by roots that spring ' out laterally 
near the surface and simply traverse 
the surface soil. But what are the 
facts in regard to this plant? 

Wheat has two sets of roots: the 
first springing from the seed and 
penetrating downward, while the sec- 
ond set push themselves laterally near 
the surface of the ground from the 
first joint! Hence the roots of wheat 
penetrate and traverse the entire 
depth of the broken and fertile soil, 
and extract their food from every 
part of the soil. The product of the 
crop will be found to be in the ratio 
of its extent and fertility. It likewise 
requires, as do corn and other 
crops, a deeply broken soil to gather 
and retain a sufficiency of moisture to 
enliven the plant in its growth and 
fruitage — to keep it from famishing. 

The same class of land that grows 
cotton will grow wheat. In this sec- 
tion of Georgia I would select a brown 
or mulatto soil with a moderate 



gravel; but wheat will succeed better 
on heavier lands than cotton. 

In my system of rotation of crops, 
wheat follows the corn crop. As soon 
as the corn has been gathered, and 
the field grazed off by the stock, 
broadcast the land with two or three 
hundred pounds of my "compost" to 
the acre, and sow from a half to a 
bushel of wheat to the acre, accord- 
ing to the strength of the land. With 
a small-sized turn-plow turn over the 
land about four inches deep, following 
in each furrow with a good subsoiler. 
When finished, drag a fine brush over 
the land with a pair of horses, always 
moving the brush on a level, if it re- 
quires to cross the plowing. With 
me this plan has succeeded well. 

Another plan is to break deep, sub- 
soil and harrow the land. Then sow 
the wheat and manure, and harrow 
in, then roll it. 

Still a third plan may be tried, 
which looks simply to raising grass, 
with a prospect of having a crop or 
not of wheat: Sow the seed and the 
manure, if you intend any, at the same 
time. Turn over the land with a 
turn-plow, four inches deep. Brush 
or not as you may have time. If the 
wheat comes sufficiently to pay for 
cutting, do so, if not, turn the stock 
on it — xising it as a pasture during 
the balance of the year. 
Rust in Wheat. 

Rust damages hill and dry land less 
than wet or low lands. So far as my 



GROWING WHEAT. 



53 



observation has been, rust is entirely 
from the atmosphere, increased by 
the condition of the land, and I know 
of no preventive for it. The early 
varieties are less subject to it. Later 
varieties produce more per acre, pro- 
vided they are not attacked. 

Wheat can be saved with a com- 
mon scythe blade, or more profitably 
where the reaper can be used, always 
using a thresh as the means of get- 
ting it out. The main profit derived 
from the culture of wheat is the fact, 
that it leaves you, after cutting, a 
large quantity of vegetable matter, to 
be incorporated into the soil, to in- 
crease the quantity of cotton per acre 
the succeeding year. Patriotism says 
make your meat and bread at home 
and be independent. 

All of the above plans are applica- 
ble to every ^other species of small 
grain. 

The cultivation of small grain is 
necessary to carry out a system of 
rotation of crops and if you do not 
sow them you must rest your corn 
lands. Now choose between the two 
systems. Sow small grain, or rest 
your corn lands. You can hardly fail 
to make less on them than the worth 
of the seed in sowing. 

The reader will observe that I have 
not attached much importance to the 
wheat culture as a crop on my farm; 
nor do I advocate its culture as a 
crop, in the cotton belt, because cot- 
ton as a crop, pays much better. I 
only advise it as a part of my rota- 
tion system, for the benefit of my 
cotton and corn lands. This field 
that I put in wheat would rest any- 
how the next year. The manure and 
the breaking in the fall will contri- 
bute to the production of a fine crop 
of grass and weeds the next spring, 
even should the crop of wheat prove 
unworthy of the scythe. The land had 
to be rested, and it paid to prepare 
and fertilize it for a crop of vegetable 
matter to recuperate the soil for the 
next cotton crop. But my crops of 
wheat have paid directly in results 
and ten fold in improving my land for 
other crops. Under the policy that 
I advocate as a farmer — "Let us be 
independent," I do advise every 
farmer to plant, at least, a few acres 



in wheat. These few acres, heavily 
manured, will give him his supply of 
Hour, and, in addition the rest, and 
crop of stubble and grass will wonder- 
fully recuperate the land, and return 
the profit in the cotton crop next year. 
Note. — I would emphasize some of 
these points, as stated above for the 
wheat culture, illustrating two cardi- 
nal principles as components of my 
system of farming: 

1. In contra-distincticn to the popu- 
lar theory, that wheat is a surface 
root crop, and hence, must be 
scratched in with a scooter plow. I 
advise the practice of turning under 
v/heat land to the depth of, at least 
four inches, putting the surface soil 
that many inches deep under, and, 
in addition, breaking the subsoil be- 
neath. I advise this upon the broad 
fact relating to vegetable life — that 
all annual plants, for thin growth and 
fruitage, utilize and appropriate the 
soil nutriment of the entire available 
depth and area of pulverized and fer- 
tile soil allotted to them by space. 
The surface scratching in leaves the 
plants no depth to traverse for the ob- 
tainment of food, and hence the crop 
is practically impoverished, and the 
yield a failure in results. It appropri- 
ates the strength of an inch depth of 
soil, whereas, it could as easily have 
appropriated the entire fertile proper- 
ties of four inches depth. This prin- 
ciple is as sound in regard to the 
wheat crop as with corn and cotton. 

2. The wheat crop, the same as 
other annual crops, requires a depth 
of broken and mellow soil to imbibe 
and retain a sufficiency of moisture 
to prevent the crop from famishing 
during accidental spring drought. 

These facts which are true in prin- 
ciple with other crops, hold good in 
the wheat crop. Hence I advise farm- 
ers to sow in wheat, oats and rye, one- 
third or one-fourth of their tillable 
land, and for the following reasons: 

1. With the fertilization, turning 
and brushing as first directed, the 
crop will pay, per se, a handsome 
dividend* 

2. It indirectly pays a large per- 
centage in the way of permanent im- 
provement of the land by furnishing 
an abundant supply of vegetable mat- 



54 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



ter from the straw stubble and ac- 
companying crop of grass and weeds, 
which the land, more than anything 
else, needs. 

3. The turning into the soil in the 
fall a good supply of manure, greatly 
increases the crop of spontaneous 
growth that springs up the next 
spring, the year of rest, to shade the 
land, protects it from the summer's 
sun, and adds an additional supply of 
vegetable mold to the soil. The 
profits, then, may be counted — not 
only in the crop of grain raised, but 
in turning under of vegetable matter 



in the fall, and the more luxuriant 
crop of weeds during the year of rest, 
promoted by the manuring of the 
wheat crop. It will leave the land in 
doubly, a better condition for the fol- 
lowing cotton crop, than if it had not 
been sown in wheat, as directed. 

Hence, in carrying out the rotation 
system suggested, I repeat the in- 
junction — sow wheat and oats, if not 
for the sake of the grain crop, do it 
for the good and permanent improve- 
ment of the land — recollecting that 
the general treatment of lands may 
not be neglected by any farmer ex- 
pecting real ultimate success. 




Hereford Yearling. 



CHAPTER X. 



f 



Potatoes, Turnips and Vegetables, 

On !he two Field System to Save Labor. Select 
two Plats of Land lor this Purpose. 



Turnips. 

FVom the 20th of July to the 15th 
,of August is the best time to sow tur- 
nips. 

Lay off the rows three feet distant, 
opening the furrows six inches deep. 
Use compost and commercial ma- 
nures, with ashes sufficient to make it 
very rich. Bed the land the same as 
for planting cotton, and strike it off. 
Open by hand with a little hook. In 
the small furrow deposit the seed and 
cover them about an inch deep. 
When they have three or four leaves, 
shave through the drill with a hoe, 
four inches broad, leaving from two 
to four plants in a hill. A few days 
afterwards, side as you would cotton. 
When the leaves are about three 
inches long, go over and cut any grass 
that may have been left, and thin the 
plants to one plant in a hill. In case, 
afterwards, there should be any grass 
or pusley, it must be taken up clean, 
leaving nothing to come to seed but 
the turnips. The next spring this is 
to be the potato patch. 

Sweet Potatoes. 

If the land be not rich enough for 
potatoes, some commercial manures 
may be added in the bed, as for cot- 
ton. Plant the potato draws twelve 
inches apart in the ridge. I prefer 
them thick, as they will not grow so 
large, and will make more bushels 
per acre. Cultivate the potatoes with 
a sweep as you would cotton. 



When you wish to lay by, you can 
use a sweep to set the hill. Side 
with a sweep, and with an old sweep 
whose point has been worn short, and 
putting your clevis on the top side of 
the beam of the plow, run out the 
middle. Hold the plow handles well 
up, and make the team move briskly; 
and if the first furrow does not throw 
the bed out sufficiently, run your 
sweep back in the same furrow, mak- 
ing two sweeps to each middle. You 
will have a nice Hat bed; and if this 
work has been well done no hoe will 
be needed in the potato patch. 

After frosts in the fall is the proper 
time for digging and saving potatoes. 
The work should not be commenced 
till after the morning frost has melted 
away, as the least frost will prevent 
them from keeping. 

With a long scooter plow run on 
each side to show the potatoes, and 
then with a long shovel plow run in 
the middle, splitting out the potato 
ridge, and throwing all the potatoes 
out. The hands should follow the 
plow and carefully pick them up. 
Potatoes should be handled without 
bruising. I prefer good open dry 
weather for digging. There are many 
ways to save potatoes. I will give 
only one method. 

Dig a hole, a round circle, about 
six inches deep, where the water will 
not settle; fill it full of straw; pour 
about fifteen or twenty bushels of 
potatoes on top of the straw; and then 
round them all. Cover the potatoes 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



with straw; a few corn stalks may be 
laid around the straw, but this is not 
essential. Set up your forks, and 
cover well. In one or two days, put 
dirt around the hill one-half way up, 
as thick as you intend, but not less 
than seven or eight inches; and as 
the potatoes sweat and dry out, you 
can continue to add dirt until you get 
to the top of the hill. They keep 
either with a small hole left at the 
top, or none, about equally well. 

By having two lots, the two lots 
will produce three crops each year — 
a crop of wheat, a crop of potatoes, 
and a crop of turnips — wheat first, 
turnips second, and potatoes third. 
Sow wheat as soon as you dig pota- 
toes; as soon as the wheat is off plow 
the land for turnips; plant the tur- 
nips the last of July or the first of 
August; use them out, except a few 
rows for seed, by the time to plant 
potatoes. 

Sugar Cane. 

My experience in the growing of 
this crop has been very limited, but 
quite successful. I have found a rich 
alluvial soil, moderately dry, or a 
rich heavy clay land the best for su- 
gar-cane. Thinner land, a little more 
sandy, I have found produced cane 
that contained more sugar to the size 
of the stalk, but not yielding so much 
in quantity. About the middle of 
Februarj-, is about the best time to 
plant in this latitude. The land 
should be manured heavily by broad- 
casting compost or commercial ma- 
nures. Turn this under deeply and 
follow with subsoiler. Make the rows 
with a large shovel six feet wide, and 
plant the cane, covering with two 
small shovel furrows. Sugar cane 
has a greater quantity of roots than 
corn, and hence more care should be 
taken not to destroy them by deep 
culture. Plow lightly with a large 
sweep. 

In bedding down the cane, for seed, 
it should be stripped of all the fodder, 
to prevent its heating the cane and 
thus destroying the eyes. Occasion- 
ally lay cross-pieces to keep the cane 
from lying too close together and 
causing it to heat. Cover it sufficiently 
deep to protect from cold. This is 
only to instruct those who wish to 



make small quantities. Those who have 
followed it as a business must cer- 
tainly know more about it as a busi- 
ness than I do. 

Ground Peas. 

Ground peas are sometimes culti- 
vated between corn, for stock. For 
a patch for family use, choose a plat 
of good mulatto land, clay subsoil, 
moderately rich, with a little addition 
of the "Compound." Lay off about 
three feet distant, three inches deep, 
and drop the seed in the ground four 
inches apart, and cover lightly. The 
time to plant is as early as they will 
escape the frost. Cultivate on a 
level with a sweep. Keep the ground 
loose under the vine, and never cover 
the vines when they begin to run. 
Tliere is one sort that runs up 
straight. Top them off. If the land 
is too sandy, or too rich, the pods will 
fail to have the fruit in them, and 
make what is called pops. 

The Vegetable Garden. 

The vegetable garden should be 
made intensely rich by hauling on 
compost or barn-yard manures every 
year. This should be trenched in, or 
turned in with a large turn-plow and 
deeply subsoiled every year. This 
will keep the soil rich and deeply mel- 
lowed, and thus prepared for every 
garden crop. The barn-yard manures 
will furnish an ample supply of vege- 
table matter, and the ammonia and 
other fertile elements incorporated 
with it will keep the soil sufficiently 
rich for the production of any garden 
vegetable. But during the planting, 
other chemical manures may be ad- 
ded to the several crops planted. As 
the safest practice, if you wish unfail- 
ing success in garden crops, keep 
your garden spot well enriched and 
deeply subsoiled. It will thus be 
ready all the time for any crop and for 
any succession of crops during the 
year. Remember you must manure 
every year if you wish a fine garden. I 
will only mention the culture of a few 
of the most usual vegetables grown for 
family use. 

Irish Potatoes — Require a rich 
loamy soil, a little inclined to clay. 
Prepare, plant and cultivate as fol- 
lows: After making the land rich. 



VEGETABLES— TWO-FIELD SYSTEM. 



break and subsoil deep. Lay off the 
rows four feet apart, and six inches 
deep. Put in compost or commercial 
manures around the potatoes after 
dropping them about fifteen inches in 
the hill. They may be dropped whole 
or cut in halves; cover level with the 
surface. 

The crop may now be mulched with 
pine or wheat straw, eight inches 
deep. Or wait till the crop is well 
up; then give it one working, with a 
small hill made round the potatoes, 
and then mulch with straw. When 
the year is seasonable, the crop suc- 
ceeds finely without mulching; but 
the mulching obviates the disastrous 
effects of drouth and secures, without 
failure, a good crop of potatoes. 

Two or three different plantings 
should be made^in October, the first 
of January, the first of February, and 
the last planting about the first of 
March. A fall crop may be planted in 
June, but it will not succeed unless it 
is seasonable. They do not keep well 
in this climate, but may be kept suffi- 
ciently well by treating them as you 
would sweet potatoes. There should 
be less quantity put in the hill, which 
must always be sheltered and kept dry. 

Cabbage. — This crop only succeeds 
as a summer crop in this latitude, as 
I have found it very difficult to raise 
fall cabbages. The land must be clay, 
and made rich with manures and 
phosphates. The soil must be deep 
and mellow so as to make the growth 
of the plant luxuriant. If the crop 
does not grow off rapidly, the plants 
will not head well, and hence will 
prove a failure. In planting, give 
them four feet by two in the drill. Cul- 
tivate very shallow, and work them 
frequently to keep the surface fresh 
and readily permeable to the atmos- 
pheric gases. If sowed early, look for 
cabbages from the middle of May till 
September. The common collards 
are cultivated in the same manner. 

Beets. — For the cultivation of this 
crop I have a peculiar way, prefer- 
ring the small young, tender beet, 
never to exceed an inch and a half in 
diameter for the best in quality. To 
obtain this j'ou must have a rich soil, 
and very deep preparation. Plant 



once a month. Sow your seed quite 
thick, and you may commence eating 
by the time they are half an inch in 
diameter. The more thrifty plants 
will grow ahead, and you can take 
them out and thus thin the balance. 
I prefer the long blood beet, but the 
turnip beet for forwardness. The 
beet crop needs the same shallow cul- 
tivation as other crops. 

Tomatoes. — The enriched and deeply 
prepared soil as advised for •^'ow 
garden will grow tomatoes luxuriantly. 
They require nothing but rich land, 
planting and cultivating. I pre 
fer the small cone, not to exceed an 
inch and a quarter or an inch and a 
half in diameter. They are always 
the' best on the fresh vines. To ob- 
tain the young vines plant frequently. 
If you do not have the plants, you 
may cut off the limbs and transplant. 
This crop needs brushing or framing 
up to support the vines during fruit- 
age. This is absolutely necessary. 

Onions. — Are easily made, requir- 
ing only a rich, soil, deeply prepared. 
In addition to other manures, ashes 
and hen manure are fine. Mark off 
the land after preparation, twenty in- 
ches. Set your plants about two in- 
ches in the ground, four inches apart. 
With light culture, keep the crop 
clean. 

Melons. — Should be made on. a 
large scale, both watermelons, nut- 
megs and muskmelons. A patch 
should be planted every two weeks, 
from the first of March to the first of 
August. Fresh vines always produce 
the best melons. Moderately sandy 
or loamy land is best adapted to their 
cultivation. Old fields, or pine lands 
that have been cut down and let lie 
for one or two years for straw to rot. 
is one of the best varieties of soil.. 
The ground should be laid off about 
twelve feet each way. 

After it has been deeply ploughed, 
dig a hole about three feet square, 
and put in eighteen inches of manure. 
Thus prepared and planted, it should 
be cultivated as other crops. Use as 
much manure as you would for ten or 
twelve hills of corn. Plough them as 
long as the vines will admit of it; 
even when they are three or four feet 



58 



• DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



long you can turn them up and plough 
them. 

Almost any variety of land will 
make watermelons. First year's land 
I have never thought quite so good 
for watermelons. If you wish to 
make large watermelons, leave but 
one vine in the hill; watch your patch. 



and pull off those that have a runted 
appearance early; let them get ripe 
before pulling. 

The cantaloupe, nutmeg and musk- 
melon may be all cultivated the same 
way, requiring only less distance, say 
six feet. 




Only Good Stock Pay. 



CHAPTER XI. 



Fruit Culture and Care of Stock. 



STOCK. 

Apples require a strong, clay land. 
They succeed well in coves and val- 
leys. They should be planted about 
three or four inches deeper than they 
are in the nursery, to prevent their 
blowing down. Train the body four 
feet high. Pruning should be done 
annually, before the limbs become of 
any size, and kept moderately open. 
The land should be cultivated every 
other year in cotton, and the succeed- 
ing year turn under two green crops 
of peas. It will do well if you ma- 
nure highly every year in cotton, al- 
ways returning as many seed back as 
were taken off. Caterpillars should 
be taken off clean every year before 
they eat the leaves off. Examine for 
worms about the roots and other 
places. If the plough traces skin the 
trees while young, a black bug will 
get in the bark and kill the tree. Ap- 
ples do not succeed very well in this 
latitude; but enough can be made for 
home use for cider, and supply the 
vinegar. 

Cotton succeeds much better under 
apple trees than it does under peach 
trees. Plant apple trees twenty feet 
each way. I have no particular va- 
rieties that I can recommend with cer- 
tainly. Summer fruits do better than 
fall and winter fruits. 

Peaches require strong, clay rolling 
land, riot very rich, planted ten feet 
in the row, and sixteen feet apart. No 
crop can be raised to any profit on the 
land, except peas be turned under. 1 



find this thick planting always to pro- 
duce less rotten peaches and sweeter 
ones; the reason, as I suppose, is, 
that the trees evaporate the excessive 
moisture by being planted thick, to a 
greater extent than when they are 
planted thin. I have found by obser- 
vation, that peaches in an orchard 
thickly planted, rot a great deal less 
than an open tree out in the field. The 
late varieties require richer land than 
the forward kind. 

I have entirely failed to raise pears 
in the sandy lands. 

Strawberries. — Strawberries require 
a mulatto soil inclined to clay. They 
require a deep cultivation. The manure 
should be scrapings from rich lands, 
ashes and phosphates, with a small 
sprinkling of salt and plaster; and as 
land is cheap in this country, I would 
recommend a large patch, since by 
working them they could be repaid, ft 
is left to the taste of the cultivator 
whether he will have his strawberries 
near his house or near a stream. 

After the ground is thoroughly 
spaded or subsoiled, ploughed deep 
and levelled, lay off the rows by a 
small mark four feet apart; plant each 
hill from eighteen to twenty inches 
apart. Cultivate level, and clean as 
you would cotton. They may be either 
mulched in the spring by straw, or 
kept clean by cultivation, as the cul- 
tivator may choose. One plat will an- 
swer the purpose. The second year, 
make a mark in the middle of the row 
and spade it up deep, adding fresh ma- 



60 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



nures and vegetable matter. Late in 
the fall, or early in the spring, set out 
a row in the middle, and at the end of 
tile bearing season the old row may 
be hoed up. Every fall the patch 
should be ploughed, subsoiled and 
levelled, and a small quantity of ma- 
nure added. Repeat the operation an- 
nually, as long as you wish to eat 
strawberries, cream and sugar. 

Raspberries require n deep, loamy 
soil. Plant them in rows six feet 
apart. Set up sticks to keep them 
straight. Keep them clean by hoeing" 
and ploughing, as you would corn. Af- 
ter bearing, cut down all the old 
canes. 

Another mode is to plant them 
around the edge of the garden, and 
tie them back to the garden fence, 
and keep them worked clean. If you 
plant sutliciently, and cultivate them 
either way, you will never fail to 
have a plenty. They are a certain 
fruit. 

I have had but little experience 
with the other small fruits. 
Vinegar IVlaking. 

Put the cider into a very tight bar- 
rel, and at the end of two or three 
months draw it off, and put it into a 
new barrel. If it does not have the 
appearance of a sufficient body and 
proper acidity, add a little whisky 
once a month, till you give it a suffi- 
cient body. Time will convert it into 
first-rate vinegar. 

Cider Making. 

Cider, in a great measure, depends 
on the quality of the fruit from which 
it is obtained. A variety of crabs, 
known as cider apples, is of the first 
class for cider; many other varieties 
of apples make good cider, such as 
the Shockley, Romanite. It is neces- 
sary that apples should be sound and 
fully ripe to make a first-class article 
of cider. Beat or grind fine, and let 
it remain twelve hours without press- 
ing. Press out all the juice, and 
strain it into a clean barrel, it will 
keep better when the barrel is full, 
and stand the weather better. To let 
it ferment like wine will improve the 
quality of the cider. 

To make cider to keep through the 
winter, put into it one pound of clari- 



fied sugar to the gallon. To make it 
for bottling, and long keeping, put 
two pounds sugar to the gallon, and 
let it ferment. . At the end of six 
months, it may be bottled, and will 
keep till used. I have some now that 
is fourteen years old. If you desire 
to make fresh cider of it at any time, 
put small quantities of it into a jug, 
add about half the quantity of water, 
let it stand till it begins to ferment, 
and it will be ready for use, having 
the appearance and taste of cider just 
pressed, only a purer article. 

Note — By the Editor — A little pleas- 
antry over a bottle of wine. — A few 
years since, I was dining with Mr. 
Dickson, with a number of other gen- 
tlemen. After we had been served 
with a sumptuous feast, according to 
the style and habit of the "prince of 
farmers," we were tendered a glass 
of fine wine, accompanied with tiie 
question which was extended to al! 
the gentlemen present at the table: 
"What wine do you take this to be?" 
The gentlemen, one by one responded, 
some guessing one brand and some 
another of the finest known brands 
of wine. Mr. Dickson smilingly an- 
swered: "This is nothing but apple 
cider, and the glass of sweet cider at 
your plates is exactly the same, with 
the addition of water and a little su- 
gar. It is cider that I made several 
years ago, and it is constantly improv- 
ing in flavor and richness of taste." 
The ruse was enjoyed by all the gen- 
tlemen present, and a social compro- 
mise effected by telling us the pro- 
cess of making it, wiiich was as above 
described. 

But the joke was enjoyable withal; 
for the gentlemen unanimously de- 
clared that they had never tasted finer 
wine than was Mr. Dickson's cider. 

Care of Horses. 

To get the greatest amount of la- 
bor from mules and horses without in- 
juring them, requires the greatest care 
in feeding, watering and housing. 
Where oats can be easily made, half 
feed on oats and half on corn, with 
fodder and hay, is the best food for 
horses. I have long contemplated 
grinding the corn or oats, and baking 
it into bread for horses, but never 
tried the experiment. I think that 



FRUIT CULTURE AND CARE OF STOCK. 



61 



would be the best preventive of colic 
of anything that has ever been tried. 

Large, dry and open stalls, one mule 
to each stall, I consider the best mode 
of housing them. It is necessary to 
take all the advantages for working 
them with ease. Kindness is neces- 
sary, the horse doing much better 
when treated kindly than when fret- 
ted and abused. If a mule or horse 
is well treated by those who work 
them, he will become attached to them 
and do better service. 

Raising hogs. 

I will simply give my practice un- 
der slavery, which will be equally etR- 
cient now, when freedmen become 
more h-onest. Always select the 
best boars and sows out of the best 
breeds. Having carried the laud 
through a state of improvement with 
guanos for a number of years, incor- 
porating bone dust into the soil, it 
will produce a fine growth of weeds 
on the land after laying by, which 
will grow finely until they are turned 
in. The practice is to move the hogs 
along before the plough, from field to 
field giving them only a bushel of 
corn to a hundred in number. Let 
them feed on the supply of turnips 
during January, February and March, 
and on the rye and grass until about 
the first of May, then return the liogs 
to their permanent pastures, and let 
them run on lands that have been at 
rest. They will not injure the weeds 
at this time, and having such a fine 
start they will continue to improve. 
Having sown the previous year some 
of my corn land in wheat, oats and 
rye, and saved what I could of them, 
being on an average of about two- 
thirds of the crop, I turn the hogs on 
this field, where they will be well sus- 
tained until pea-time. 

If you wish to fatten early, plant a 
field in early peas; turn your stock 
into the corn and peas. I have al- 
ways been accustomed to put peas in 
every corn row, and corn land being 
in good heart with former manuring, 
would make peas sufficient to last un- 
til February. Peas never kill hogs; 
but particular kinds of soil in the field 
may kill them, such as clay, pipe-clay, 
and pfairie lands. The best preven- 
tive is a plenty of vegetables, such as 



potatoes, pumpkins, turnips, and a 
plenty of salt and copperas. On my 
land, none die from eating peas. 

About the middle of August, select 
out your hogs you wish to fatten; 
feed them with corn awhile, say three 
or four weeks, or until the pea field 
is ready for them. When they have 
eaten off the peas, put them up in 
pens, well littered, three or four in a 
pen, and feed them on corn. The 
best way is to have the corn ground, 
and cook it for them. 

Under this system, I used to raise 
from eight to twelve hundred pounds 
of pork per each hand. By fencing 
the whole lands, many things accumu-^ 
late that sustain hogs, which amount 
to a great deal in the whole. Stock 
should never run on the same field 
two years in succession, but shguld be 
changed, in order to allow an accumu- 
lation of worms, bugs, mussels, fish, 
and many kinds of roots — all of which 
hogs devour greedily. They are also 
fond of herbs and wild fruits. 

Hogs in the swamp feed to a con- 
siderable extent on leaves that have 
been rafted up, and are in a decaying 
state under the water. Tliis I know 
from killing wild hogs in good order, 
and, on opening their maws and in- 
testines, have found nothing in them 
but these decayed leaves and muck, 
and from having often seen them eat- 
ing these leaves in branches and 
swamps. 

Saving Bacon, 

When you kill your pork hogs, cut 
the bacon, spread it, and let it lie long 
enough to get out all the animal heat. 
Then salt it down — covering it thor- 
oughly with salt. When it has salted 
long enough, hang it and let it well 
dry; then subject it to the following 
process to keep it sound and sweet 
by keeping off the skipper fly: 

Get you some ashes, by burning 
sweetgum, hickory, and maple, either 
separately or all mixed. Take down 
your meat about the first of March, 
wipe it well to get all the skipper eggs 
off. Have a rack of round sticks, on 
which other sticks are laid twelve 
inches apart ; lay the meat on it, and 
cover over the fleshy part well with 
ashes. As soon as the skipper fly 
makes its appearance, use the com- 



62 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING, 



mon fly poisons in smokehouses, made 
up just as for house flies; renew it 
twice a week, and it will attract the 
attention of the skipper flies, and kill 
them, and run out the rats, too. If 
the above receipt is followed strictly, 
tuere will never be a skipper in the 
whole number of your hams and 
shoulders. A dark and tight house is 
always preferable, so that the venti- 
lation comes down through the top of 
the house, which should be well wired 
to keep the flies from coming down. 
Honey and the Habits of Bees. 
Honey may be obtained in sufiicient 
quantities for the use of families, by 
boxes simply being made of twelve- 
inch plank, two feet, four inches long. 
A little attention is requisite in order 
to keep the worms from collecting 
ground the edge of the boxes, and doing 
up and eating the honey. Always 
have hives ready when the bees 
swarm in the spring of the year, and 
a good place for them to settle on; 
saw off the limb when they have set- 
tled, place it r J the mouth of the empty 
gum, which should be elevated 
about four inches. With a little at- 
tention, the bees will soon go in. At 
night, move the gum to the bench 
where it is to stand permanently, 
which should always be in a shady 
place, and protected from the rain. 

About the 10th to the 15th of May, 
is the proper time to take the honey 
out, which may be done by tying a 
sheet around the mouth of the gum, 
laying it on a table, with the head a 
little the lowest, blowing in a lit- 
tle smoke, then with a knife, with a 
little blade, cut across the honey, and 
take it out in squares, scrape the 
sides of the gum clean, and return it 
to the bench from whence it came. If 
handled nicely, the hive will be equal 
to a new hive. 

This is the easiest and plainest way 
to obtain honey. The improved hive, 
with supers on top, furnishes a more 
neat and easy way of taking it. 

Honey is obtained from flowers, 
and from the honey-dew that comes 
on a dry year. The comb is secreted 
from the abdomen of the bees: young 
bees only being capable of producing 
wax. 

No hive has more than one queen. 



I have sometimes known two queens 
to come out, which fact you can as- 
certain soon by the bees being agi- 
tated. Looking under the gum, or 
around the hive, you will find one of 
the queens taken a prisoner. If you 
take her out from the gum, all will be 
quiet. In other instances, I have 
found the hives without any queen, by 
the agitation of the bees. Look round 
on the ground and other places, and 
you will find the queen with a small 
knot of bees on her; take her up and 
carry her to the gum, and all will be 
quiet. 

Bees have not changed their habits 
in the memory of man. They raise 
'quite a number of queens in swarm* 
ing time. If any of them have the 
least blemish in the world, they are 
put to death, and thrown out of the 
hive. I have often found as many as 
six or eight of them in front of the 
hive. On examination, I could see 
the fault for which she was killed — 
she having been imperfect in some 
particular. The same thing is true of 
the neutral bee; each one is exam- 
ined, and should the least blemish be 
found on it, it is put to death. When 
the swarm is perfect, and the queen 
also, the first favorable day they 
swarm out. 

There are many other habits I have 
noticed in the bee. Some ventilate 
the hive, in hot weather, by fanning 
with their wings; some carry in wa- 
ter, and some compound it with bread 
to make food for the young bees; 
some bring the honey, and the others 
the bee-bread; but no two kinds of 
bread are ever deposited in the same 
cell. Everything is order, system 
and industry. All the cracks in the 
gums the bees seal with sweetgum. I 
have, when a boy, often taken it from 
the gums and chewed it. 

Our Present System of Labor. 

The present system of labor does 
not exceed sixty per cent, of slave la- 
bor, involving a loss of fully one-third 
of the labor by the men going to vil- 
lages, railroads, mining and other en- 
terprises. One-half of the women and 
children are absent, housekeeping, 
idling, and other things. Under the 
slave system, the women and children 
were the mainspring of cotton-rais- 



FRUIT CULTURE AND CARE OF STOCK. 



63 



ing. The loss of labor and ineffi- 
ciency of labor, are about equally 
compensated by the increased price 
of our products. One of the reasons 
why there is a deficiency of labor is, 
that the men take Saturdays to go to 
public meetings; they do not work as 
many hours in the day as they for- 
merly did, and their work is not of as 
good a character. Each family must 
have its housekeeper and washer, and 
must send to mill, if they only send a 
half-bushel of corn. A great loss in 
their labor also results in their hav- 
ing to stop to gather fire-wood, and 
attend to their gardens and patches. 

The only partial compensation we 
will ever get for this loss and ineffi- 
ciency of labor, is the increased price 
of our products — the high price of 
cotton. I submit, is it good policy to 
encourage immigration to bring down 
these prices, and lose the only bene- 
fit that we can ever derive from* the 
result of emancipation? 

The best method of hiring, I con- 
sider to be wages — a contract setting 
forth the duties of each party. The 
policy of managing freedmen is, to 
act firmly, and truly, and honestly 
with them, and require them to do 
the same; and as a good stimulus to do 
this, never pay them more than half 
wages till the end of the time for 
which they contracted to work. On 
plantations of any considerable size, 
the actual necessaries should be kept, 
and sold to the freedmen at a profit 
suflBcient to pay all risk and interest 
on the money. Those who work on 
shares should divide the profits and 
responsibilities with the land-owner. 
The rent of the land should be one- 
third of all the crops gathered; an- 
other third should pay for the horse- 
power, machinery and tools. The la- 
borer should have one-third, he find- 
ing his own hoe and axe, it being im- 
possible to keep such things as plan- 
tation tools. The whole direction of 
the labors, the management, gather- 
ing and the sale of the crop should be 
held by the land-owner. What is left 
on the fields, and the use of the pas- 
ture, should be the land-owner's, after 
the hands cease to gather the crops. 
As the land-owner furnishes the land, 
and all the expenses of the tools, the 



laborer should pay him two-thirds 
the value of all the days that he was 
not employed. 

One objection to the cropping is 
this; you can not carry the improve- 
ment plan to the extent that is desir- 
able. The laborers are unwilling to 
do as deep ploughing as is required — 
to purchase as much fertilizers as will 
pay a profit. You would lose the serv- 
ices of the laborers on rainy days, 
and at other times between crops, 
that might be used to great advantage 
on a farm. 

In hiring laborers, a man should 
nevf^i' allow less than fifty per cent, 
profit on the labor, for he is taking 
the risk, and paying for the laborer, 
the land always coming in for a third. 
Where the farm is rented to parties 
of capital that furnish everything, the 
land should be kept up by manuring, 
the fences should be repaired, all the 
droppings of the farm saved and ap- 
plied to the crops, the buildings 
should have all the repairs done on 
them where mechanics are not re- 
quired; the land should retain one- 
half. No renter or cropper should 
ever think of having stock to the ex- 
tent of depredating on the employer's 
land; should the contract be made 
for raising stock, I know of no reason 
why the land should not draw an 
equal proportion of stock as well as 
of crops. Seed and shucks should 
never be removed from the land. 
When new renters come, furnish 
them seed, and let them use the 
shucks; when they leave, let them 
leave the shucks. If they make more 
than one crop, let them use the seed 
for manure until they leave. The 
way to make the estimate to get the 
fifty* per cent, on the work, is to take 
off one-third of the cotton crop for 
the land, one-third for the fences, in- 
cluding the machinery, and then give 
the laborers, in wages, what would be 
equal to two-thirds of one-third of an 
average crop. The reason for reserv- 
ing this one-third is. that the em- 
ployer takes all the risks of storms, 
drouths, worms, caterpillars and boll- 
worms, and of prices lessening and 
of every other disaster. Let the la- 
borer share the risk and insurance. 
* * * All of my trained hands 



64 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



have now applied to come back, pre- 
ferring one-third of the crop gathered 
on my place, to one-half on the places 
worked last year. Whilst I owned 
them, they told me to plant thirty- 
eight acres in corn and cotton, and 
seventeen acres in wheat and oats, 
and they would cultivate it with my 
aid, in preference to twenty acres un- 
der an overseer, and could do it with 
more ease. My crops before the war, 
averaged me $1,000 per hand. I di- 
vide thus: $200 for manure, $200 for 
horse-power, tools, etc., $300 for land 
and $300 for labor. My estimate is 
now, when hands work well, to di- 
vide as follows: First, take my pay 
for all purchased manvires; the bal- 
ance to go — one-third for land rent, 
one-third for horse-power, and all 
tools, including gins, wagons, carts, 
wheat thresher, etc., hoes and axes 
excepted, which each hand should 
furnish, and one-third to the laborer, 
being divided among the hands that 
produce; the cottonseed to be re- 
turned to the land, and all crops left 
in the field ungathered to go to the 
owner of the land. 

The farmer should, by all means, 
save a portion of his income accumu- 
lated from year to year, and get in a 
condition to buy everything for cash. 
Sell cotton for cash. Other things 
may or may not be sold on time. 
When you mortgage your crop, you 
lose your independence to that extent. 
Keep a cash capital equal to one 
year's expenses. Invest in stocks 
that are readily converted into mon- 
ey; it will enable you to hold your cot- 
ton until you can get a price that will 
be remunerative. Make all supplies 
at home that can be made; and as you 
accumulate capital, you can e/iter 
into joint stock companies for manu- 
facturing, banking, discount(ing — fill- 
up the whole vacuum, so that a for- 
eigner's dollar can find no investment 
here. But having a mortgage on 
your property, will create a tax for 
all future labor. 

In the course of time, the planters 
will have the capital here to export 
their cotton directly fo Europe — bring- 



ing goods directly here, and saving 
all accumulations of profit, freight, 
and other contingencies. The plan- 
ters in the Cotton States can save 
forty millions of dollars annually, 
without feeling the loss of necessaries 
or luxuries. This forty millions of 
dollars, if invested in railroads and 
manufactories, would soon put us on 
a par with any portion of the world. 
In a few years, this forty millions of 
dollars, w'ith the interest on the first 
forty millions, would enable us to 
purchase a large portion of the bonds 
of the world. Tribute would come 
from every portion of the world to 
the cotton regions, instead of going 
out as it now does. We are making 
about three hundred millions of dol- 
lar's worth of cotton a year, at the 
prices It has ruled for the last three 
years. This forty millions of dollars, 
counted as income, will amount to 
near fourteen per cent, of the aggre- 
gate value of the cotton crop, and any 
people that can save such per cent, 
can certainly become independent. 

Cotton does the best in this lati- 
tude, but to continue to make it pay, 
the cotton planter should make his 
whole supplies — corn, cotton, meat, 
and everything necessary to run the 
farm; then the balance of the labor 
will make more money than if the 
Vt^hole labor was engaged in making 
cotton, by the increased price of the 
cotton. What corn you wish to use 
at home, you should not count the cost 
of making, but make it, and you will 
be remunerated in the increased price 
of the cotton. 

Encourage manufactories, that they 
may be supplied with the products of 
your farms, spinning up the cotton, 
working up the raw hides into shoes, 
that you may get them without any 
carrying trade to any distant portion 
of the world to be manufactured and 
brought back — get them at a less 
price, and make a profit on the prod- 
ucts furnished them. Take this la- 
bor from the cotton field, and increase 
the price of your cotton in the same 
ratio. 



CHAPTER XII. 



On Immigration 



Editor 



Spaeta, Ga., June 10th, 1869. 
Southern Cultivator: 



I wish to call the attention of the 
cotton planters of the South to the sub- 
ject of immigration. It is one of great- 
est interest, and if successful, I think 
will prove destructive to the cotton in- 
terest. I do not wish my views to pre- 
vail unless they are right. I wish both 
sides to be heard, and hope those who 
can wield the pen, and who agree with 
me, will be heard; the other side has 
been heard already, and we have been 
taxed to promote this cause. The 
State of Georgia is moving for our de- 
struction. 

The negro we have with us, and we 
can not get rid of him if we would. 
They will not die out, as most of our 
Northern friends and many of our peo- 
ple think. The next census will show 
a large increase. The only way to 
make it tolerable for them to live 
amongst us is to give them employ- 
ment. With full employment they will 
steal less, be more law-abiding, and a 
less nuisance in every way. Do we 
want more labor, and for what? The 
agricultural interest at the South is 
chiefly valuable for its production of 
cotton, tobacco and rice. Can we make 
more money by doubling the quantity 
of labor than we can out of what we 
now have? Do numbers increase the 
quantity of labor pro rata, or will the 
dividends be greater for all concerned? 
Can the first million of people in Geor- 
gia, having the first choice of lands to 
cultivate, and the balance for pasture. 



make more or less than the second mil- 
lion, having the poorest half to culti- 
vate, and no waste land for stock to 
graze on? Is the second million likely 
to be more skillful, industrious, law- 
abiding and enterprising, etc.? I think 
history teaches us that a population, 
with plenty of room and land, are more 
cheaply governed than a dense popu- 
lation — can live better, and can have 
more labor to spare for improvements. 
What country has built the same 
amount of railroads and factories as 
the United States? The United States 
having plenty of lands to cultivate, by 
selecting the best, can, with one-half 
of its laborers, make a plenty of all 
the products of the soil, whilst the 
other half can build railroads and ma- 
chinery of all kinds and work them. 
The Cotton States, with their present 
labor, can build more railroads, erect 
more factories, develop more mines, 
carry education and refinement to a 
higher point, than if the population 
was increased four-fold. With cotton 
at twenty-five cents per pound, you have 
money to do whatever you wish col- 
lectively. In 1848 and '49, with nine 
hundred thousand to one million bales 
of cotton in Liverpool, cotton sold in 
Augusta at four and half to five and a 
half cents. With three hundred and 
fifty thousand to four hundred thou- 
sand bales at present in Liverpool, cot- 
ton is selling in Augusta from twenty- 
five to twenty-nine cents per pound. 
Why do you wish to make the change? 
Our Northern friends say if we do not 



66 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OP FARMING. 



produce cotton cheaper, we will lose 
the trade. I am willing to lose it, if it 
can only be held by making cheap cot- 
ton. If they, would take a little , 
more interest in preventing the 
loss of our liberty, instead of the 
loss of the cotton trade, it would 
inure to the benefit of both sec- 
tions. Give us our liberties and consti- 
tutional rights, with our best men to 
represent us in all departments, and we 
can make as much cotton as the world 
wants, at fair prices, if it be ten mil- 
lions of bales, without an outside man 
or dollar. Good government would do 
more to develop this country than all 
the men and money in the world. 

Cotton planters, it is not to your in- 
terest to sell your land at a mere nomi- 
nal price. How can you invest your 
money to any better advantage? Land 
must advance in price. In thirty years, 
without a single immigrant, Georgia 
will have a population of two millions 
of people, the sons and daughters of 
the present population. Be patient; 
wait for the natural increase, and what 
may voluntarily come. Do not spend 
your money to hasten an over-popu- 
lated country. It will come soon 
enough; and when it does come, you 
will have no outlet. Some are willing 
to cut their lands up into small lots, 
and give every alternate lot to immi- 
grants, thinking it will more than dou- 
ble the price of the balance. What do 
you care what your lands are worth, 
if you have none to sell — besides, it 
would reduce the price of cotton more 
than one-half, and the land you have 
left would not pay per acre one-half of 
the dividends they do now — reducing 
your profits three-fourths. You have 
a plenty of native poor people to sell 
land to if you wish to part with any. 

Do those who have no land wish 
competitors in labor, and in the land 
market — reducing your wages one-half 
or more? Do you wish a great in- 
crease of money capital, reducing the 
rate of interest to the standard of Eu- 
rope, causing all property to rise in 
proportion to the fall of interest? Your 
wages are fixed by the surplus of cot- 
ton you have to export, and the price 
it will bring in Liverpool. Your pros- 
perity depends upon the scarcity of ^a- 
bor and a high rate of interest. You 



have nothing but your labor— you can- 
not borrow money, even if it gets down 
to two per cent. The value of your la- 
bor being fixed by the value of cotton 
in Liverpool, where interest is low, you 
can, by residing where it is high, ac- 
quire proportionally much more land 
in a given time. 

To those who have land to sell, or 
more than can be worked, let me say, 
the very scarcity of labor will make 
one-half of your lands bring in an- 
nually more money than if all was 
planted; the other half is worth five 
per cent, to grow broom-sedge for graz- 
ing, and will advance more than five 
per cent, annually. For the safety of 
the manufacturing interest, especially 
in cotton, it is not prudent to push it 
too fast — not faster than markets can 
be found for the products manufac- 
tured. Just a6 sure as the winds re- 
turn the water, to be condensed and fall 
again above the shoals, the people here 
will possess the money, and energy, 
and skill, to put the water to work; 
and to effect this most speedily, we 
want a scarcity of labor, that there may 
be a scarcity of cotton, and correspond- 
ingly good prices. 

With cotton at twenty to twenty- 
five cents per pound, we can in Georgia 
appropriate ten dollars towards increas- 
ing our manufacturing interest with 
more ease than one dollar, with double 
the labor, and cotton eight to twelvfe 
cents. Where are the laborers best 
fed and clothed? — where labor is 
scarce. Where does land pay the best 
profits? — where labor is scarce; and the 
reason is, the products of the farm 
bring the best prices under these cir- 
cumstances. 

I am equally opposed to begging for 
money to be brought to the South to be 
invested. If capitalists come of their 
own accord, let them come, but it is 
not to our interest that they should. 
You now own the property of Georgia; 
if you sell one-half of it, you will own 
but the other half. It is very difficult 
to transfer real property from one 
country to another. The most you 
would get would be the means to live 
and dress fine for a few years. 

What we want is a system of saving 
and properly investing each year. We 
could and ought to save annually fif- 



ON IMMIGRATION. 



67 



teen millions of dollars, to be invested 
in machinery. That would pay future 
dividends, to be reinvested: I am for 
more labor too; but I want such as we 
may never regret acquiring. Accumu- 
late all sorts of labor-saving machines; 
improve your land to a capacity double 
its present rates; improve your systems 
fully double of what they now are. 
Learn to do fully fifty per cent, more 
work with the same labor than is now 
done, and with more ease; learn to ap- 
ply your labor to greater advantage 
than is now done; do all this, and more 
too which can be done, and you will 
find your products ample, without any 
increase of population. I am for non- 
action by Georgia — non-action of our 
people. Leave the subject of immigra- 
tion to time and the free will of those 
who wish to come among us and be of 
us. 

We owe our prosperity at this time 
entirely to the scarcity of labor — many 
negroes having refused to work; 
others being employed in repairing 
torn-up railroads and building new 
roads. If all the negroes had gone 
to work on the farms, and done full 
work, it would have taken twenty 
years to reach our present situation. 
The scarcity of labor is the only bless- 
ing we now enjoy as a result of the 
war. 

The scarcity of labor in the South 
gives us the proceeds of the very la- 
bor some people wish to transfer here. 
The profits of one hand in the cotton 
field give us the labor of two in Eu- 
rope. Transfer him here, and he will 
compete with the labor we now have, 
or he will labor with those we now 
have, to lessen their profits, and bring 
about a state of things which will get 
up strikes. You must recollect, a 
strike in the cotton or harvest field is 
not like one in a cotton mill or on a 
railroad. If the mill stops, what has 
been done is not lost; if the hands re- 
fuse to move any more dirt, what has 
been, remains. Not so with wheat 
and cotton: all is lost, unless you con- 
tinue to advance. The guano must be 
pumped up into the cotton bolls, and 
they must be gathered by uninter- 
rupted labor. 

The press of the South has labored 
earnestly to get the cotton planter to 
make all his supplies at home, urging 



it as being the cheapest policy. Now 
every cotton planter knows that noth- 
ing pays as well as cotton, and all the 
presses in the world cannot change 
his opinion. But if the press will 
strike at the root of the evil, they may 
do incalculable good. I will state 
what it is; I have always practiced it; 
both the true interest of the cotton 
planter and patriotism should make 
all adopt it. Apply one-half of all la- 
bor and land to the making of full 
supplies of all kinds that are needed 
on the plantation, and enough to 
spare for those engaged in other pur- 
suits. Do this, and you will get more 
money (take ten years together) for 
the other half of labor and land en- 
gaged in cotton culture than if the 
whole was employed to produce cot- 
ton. If this is true, immigration is 
certainly not to our interest, and why 
should not the cotton planters consult 
their interest as well as other people. 
Verv respectfully,. 

DAVID DICKSOM. 



IMMIGRATION-NUMBER II. 

Spakxa, Georgia, October 7th, 1869. 
Editor Southern Cultivator: 

I could not finish what I had to say 
on immigration in my first article. I 
will not reply to any criticism on my 
views hereafter, as I have no interest 
to serve that is not common to every 
planter, to-wit: the prosperity of the 
South. I have never held any office, 
and do not wish to do so. I speak 
and write simply what I believe is the 
true interest of the cotton planter, 
without regard to pleasing or dis- 
pleasing. 

I will use round numbers; these will 
be near enough for all purposes. It 
has been about ninety years since the 
close of the Revolutionary War. The 
population then was estimated at 
about three millions; to this original 
number a few have been added since, 
by purchase of territory and annexa- 
tion, but not enough to alter the re- 
sults materially. During these nine- 
ty years, we have been engaged in 
wars (including the Indian wars) as 
much as one-sixth of the time, and 
what is the result? The population 
of the United States has increased 



68 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



thirteen-fold, reaching now, probably, 
thirty-nine millions. Taking the nine- 
ty years together, there has been an 
increase of population equal to the 
original number, once in about evei-y 
seven years, including the limited im- 
migration. Who can want a greater in- 
crease of population than that? And 
as long as there is sufficient room to 
produce all the necessaries of life, the 
increase will keep up to these figures. 
Is there any one that wishes to en- 
courage a system that would stint the 
food of their own children so as to 
stop the natural increase of a well 
provided population? Taking thirty- 
nine millions as the number of per- 
sons in the United States at present, 
let us see what they will be in ninety 
years more, or in ,1959 (and" some who 
are children now will be alive then) : 
thirteen times thirty-nine millions 
makes five hundred and seven mil- 
lions of persons. 

Messrs. Editors, we will now try the 
figures in the case of Georgia, and what 
is true of Georgia is true of all the 
Cotton States. The population of 
Georgia is now about one million two 
hundred thousand; thirteen times 
that amount is fifteen millions six 
hundred thousand. Now, is there any- 
thing that will prevent the ratio of 
increase for the next ninety years be- 
ing equal to the past ninety years, 
but a scarcity of food, and clothing, 
and room? It is often said that the 
South is the garden spot of the world. 
Heretofore we had permanent and 
limited labor, and the cotton plant, to- 
gether with an extensive forest before 
us. All is changed now; the best of 
the forest is gone and it requires a 
greater number of acres in the South 
to support its people than in regions 
farther North. It is much more diffi- 
cult to retain the soil and improve it. 
Here the land is not frozen and 
covered with snow six months in the 
year; the summers are much hotter 
and longer; heat hastens exhaustion 
when under the plough; and the heavy 
rains damage the land the year round; 
therefore, we need more land that we 
may rotate the crops and give the soil 
rest. Labor is chiefly valuable, not 
on account of the aggregate of what 
it produces, but the money value af- 
ter paying for labor and all expenses. 



The amount of labor that will pro- 
duce the greatest net profit is what I 
want. I contend we now have it in 
the Cotton States. The laborer and 
his family have to be first fed and 
clothed, no matter what the price 
agreed on for labor, before capital 
gets anything. 

It is said we want more labor. Can 
we get more laborers without at the 
same time getting more consumers? 
Or is it meant we want more persons 
without capital? If so, I am opposed 
to that plan. I had rather have less 
labor, and have a majority of the peo- 
ple interested in property, morals, 
true religion, and everything that is 
desirable. A large population has a 
tendency to develop a central govern- 
ment and a standing army. I will 
leave it to some divine to say what ef- 
fect the introduction of Chinamen 
would have on religion, morals, etc. 

Had it not been for the clause pro- 
hibiting slavery, which Virginia put 
in the articles ceding the Northwest 
territory, and the immigration of Eu- 
ropeans, we would not have had the 
late war and its results; and even if 
the war had come, there would have 
been no "lost cause." Immigration 
is the chief cause of the changed char- 
acter of the Government of the Uni- 
ted States, and a continuances of the 
former will hasten the overthrow of 
the latter, with all its attendant con- 
sequences. 

Cotton planters! the whole capital 
of Europe, including money and ma- 
chinery, together with that of the 
North, is striving to increase the 
quantity of cotton, and to reduce the 
price. You have no concert of ac- 
tion; a panic increases your anxiety 
to sell cotton. This feeds the panic 
still more. Your only remedy is to 
make only what is wanted at paying 
prices; keep out of debt, be the credi- 
tors, make the most of your' supplies 
at home — then, and only then, will 
you have power. 

Messrs. Editors, there is a great 
deal said about the capital the immi- 
grants bring to this country. I do 
not think they bring any, except 
enough to exchange during the first 
year's residence for articles that would 
be exported during that year, if not 
consumed by the immigrants, such as 
bacon, cheese, corn, flour, lard, etc. 



ON IMMIGRATION. 



Q9 



The gold returns to Europe, in place 
of the above articles, to pay for their 
clothing, etc. 

A country being rich is a very dif- 
ferent thing from a population being 
rich. Suppose Georgia had five hun- 
dred millions of taxable property, and 
one million of inhabitants, and you 
add two hundred millions taxable 
property and one million of popula- 
tion, the people would be poorer than 
at first. Population does not lessen 
taxes. Thirty years ago, with one- 
half of the present population, we did 
not pay more than one-tenth of the 
present tax. Under the Adams' ex- 
travagant administration, a tax of 
about two dollars and fifty cents per 
head, with a population of five millions, 
was paid. Under Mr. Johnson's admin- 
istration, with an average population of 
thirty-five millions, nearly five hun- 
dred millions were paid to the govern- 
ment, or sixteen dollars per head. Let 
each reader figure for himself and 
make up his mind accordingly. 

One of the benefits of scarcity of la- 
bor is, it gives high prices for cotton, 
and thereby gives us a monopoly of 
all commercial manures; and only 
one-half the land being required to 
produce the same amount of cotton; 
deeper ploughing can be done — this 
will hold moisture, to keep the manure 
soluble, and make the insoluble solu- 
ble. More care in cultivation follows; 
the best and most level lands will be 
selected; the worn and gullied lands 
will go into forest again to equalize 
the seasons as to cold and hot, wet 
and dry. The very scarcity of labor 
will enable planters to acquire a cash 
capital, and with that, if they are 
true, they can dictate terms. I feel 
no apprehension that the negro will 
or can force the planter to sell his 
land. 

I do not believe that the increase of 
price of grain in the great Northwest 
is due to the hundreds of thousands 
of immigrants annually settling there. 
If it was true, I would not want such 
immigrants; they could not make 
bread for their own consumption. It 
must be found in other causes, as de- 
preciation of the currency, conversion 
of grain into meat for cities, for ex- 
port, and the gradual impoverishment 
of land. 



I take issue again on the amount of 
labor that can be spared from a dense 
population, compared with a sparse 
one. European experience shows that 
only about one man out of each hun- 
dred of the population can be spared 
without creating a scarcity of the nec- 
essaries of life. The United States, 
taking both sections, furnish from six 
to eight to the hundred. If the South, 
previous to the war, had taken the na- 
tive white man and negro to build 
her railroads, instead of employing 
immigrants, cotton would have ad- 
vanced to such an extent as would 
have twice paid for the whole work, 
thus getting the roads for nothing, 
and still have enough to pay for all 
iron, etc. Georgia, for the last four 
years, has repaired and made more 
miles of new roads, built more facto- 
ries, shops, houses, etc., (all with Geor- 
gians), than any one million two hun- 
dred thousand people ever did since 
the creation of the world, and in this 
lies the secret of our success. 

I will only touch upon one more 
item, viz: low rate of interest. Dense 
population has a tendency to center 
property in a few hands — property in 
the hands of a few has a tendency to 
lower the interest, because the few da 
not consume the whole interest; if 
more generally diffused, all would be 
consumed. Low interest at home 
causes capital to seek investments 
where interest is high. For instance, 
Europe purchases bonds here that pay 
five to seven per cent, interest to be 
reinvested year after year, still mak- 
ing money center to the lowest point 
of interest, and rendering it more dif- 
ficult for those to live who have no 
money. This country, in less than 
ten years, will pay a tribute in inter- 
est to Europe of more than one hun- 
dred millions of dollars on bonds hav- 
ing been principally consumed in lux- 
uries. 

I am no apologist for the negro. I 
would be glad for him to feel the 
stimulating effects of immigration, if it 
could be done without injuring the 
white race. 

I shall now take final leave of this 
question, commending it to the calm 
and thoughtful consideration of the 
thousands of planters at the South 
who have as deep an interest in it as 
I have. My object has not been to 



ro 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



provoke controversy, but to caution 
my fellow-countrymen against a pol- 
icy which, in my humble judgment, is 
fraught with ruin to the South. 
Yours truly, 

DAVID DICKSON. 



IMMIGRATION-NUMBER III. 

Si'ARTA, Georgia, March 31, 1870. 
Lr. J. Dickson Smith: 

Deai: Sik — You wish to have my 
further views on the policy of immi- 
gration to the Cotton States. I should 
have answered sooner; but every time 
1 set apart a few hours for that pur- 
pose, I have been interrupted by com- 
pany. 

The great cry of the friends of im- 
migration is to develop the resources 
of the Cotton States. That might do 
if it did not increase the recipients as 
well as products. I entirely disagree 
with them. The people of the Cotton 
States own the soil, mines, water- 
power, etc., and I contend that we 
have the labor to develop these re- 
sources more effectually than if we 
had more, and receive all the profits. 
It is our first duty to provide for our 
own household, and take care of our 
own poor. We can do it more effec- 
tually, and with greater profits to our- 
selves, than we could with an increase 
of labor. Under our present sparse 
population, there is plenty of land and 
room for all, and abundant employ- 
ment for our children. This will not 
be the case when once our country be- 
comes flooded with immigrants. Our 
own children may even want that dai- 
ly employment necessary to earn 
them a scanty subsistence of being en- 
couraged and stimulated, as they now 
are, by all those incentives to action 
that spring from remunerative labor, 
as well as from the innumerable open- 
ings for enterprise now presenting 
themselves in our Southern States. 

One writer, who objects to my views, 
asks, "Who built the railroads of the 
South?" and answers, "Immigrant la- 
bor built them." That is too true; 
but it was a great evil and loss to the 
South. Under the old system, we had 
too much labor. It reduced what we 
had to export to too low a figure. Su- 
gar five to eight cents, cotton seven to 



ten cents! Instead of building our 
railroads with immigrant labor, we 
should have done it with our slaves, 
to the extent of one-fourth of all la- 
bor employed in producing cotton, 
rice, sugar, and tobacco. Who will 
say that if one-fourth of the labor had 
been employed in building railroads, 
factory dams, fish dams, ditching, im- 
proving homesteads, planting or- 
chards, etc., we would not have made 
fifty per cent, more clear money than 
we did with all the labor? The fifty 
per cent, clear money would have pur- 
chased all the railroad iron, cotton 
machinery,' etc. Under that system, 
we might have spun and woven one- 
half of the cotton, and had as many 
roads as we wanted — all of which 
would have been clear profit, getting 
as much money, all the time, for three- 
fourths of the cotton as we would for 
the whole. These are no new ideas 
of mine. They were formed and ex- 
pressed early in my cotton career. The 
first full cotton crop that I ever made 
(1847), I held my cotton eleven 
months, and sold the entire crop at 
four and a half cents per pound. Now, 
if not more than one-fourth a general 
crop had been made that year, or 
three-fourths had been burned after 
it had been made, the balance would, 
in all probability, have brought ten to 
fifteen cents. Would it not have been 
better to have taken cotton hands in- 
stead of immigrants to build those 
railroads, and saved the money, by in- 
crease of prices, to pay them, instead 
of paying the immigrants out of low- 
priced cotton? 

When you get immigrants, you get 
competitors for the labor we have, as 
well as their own labor. 

In a former article on this subject, 
I showed that a sparse population 
could be governed more cheaply than 
a dense population; that there were 
less forgeries, less robberies, and less 
of all the vices of the day. If you 
get immigrants, you get all the isms 
known in the world. If you wish a 
standing army, encourage immigration. 
All dense populations require a stand- 
ing army to preserve peace and to pro- 
tect life and liberty. Public liberty is 
near enough gone now; but a dense 
population would preclude all possibili- 
ty of its ever returning. Reflect on 



ON IMMIGRATION. 



history and the present population of 
the world. Look to China, for in- 
stance. If people can live cheaper 
and better in a dense population, why 
do they leave a dense population and 
their homes to go thousands of miles 
to find a sparse population? It is be- 
cause plenty of land and room insures 
plenty of all that is needed. 

I see it stated, since the war with 
the American Colonies, that England 
has lost, by emigration, six million 
five hundred thousand persons; yet 
she has, to-day, more than four times 
the agricultural products that she had 
then. The loss of the surplus popula- 
tion gave the balance room to work 
and accumulate. How was this done? 
By improving the soil with manures: 
doubling it by going down twice as 
deep; making it produce four times as 
much; putting one portion of the sav- 
ings in improved implements of farm- 
ing, and another portion in manufac- 
turing. Now, this is the kind of la- 
bor I want. It produces dividends, 
and the owners get them. 

Two tons of good guano will pro- 
duce more cotton than an immigrant 
would, even if he belonged to you, like 
the guano. Both pay in their own 
cost. This is the only evil in guano: 
likely to cause an over production; but 
in the case of guano, you only have to 
cease buying it. You haven't it to take 
care of. The immigrant you must 
work and feed. In the case of ma- 
chinery you must work and feed. In 
the case of machinery, all you have to 
do is to cease to apply the water and 
steam until the surplus is consumed. 
Give me guano and machinery for 
ever, instead of immigrants. I con- 
tend we can get more of both without 
immigrants than with them 

Cotton from twenty to twenty-five 
cents per pound leaves a large amount 
each year, to invest in machinery and 
guano, if we will. Immigrants, and 
cotton at eight to twelve cents, will 
leave nothing. Since the war. I have 
paid about ten cents per pound for la- 
bor alone to produce cotton. Say cotton 
has averaged twenty-four cents; one- 
third is eight cents, and the use of 
houses, wood, teams, etc., are equiva- 
lent to two cents more — making ten 
cents per pound. Some give more. It 
makes no difference what terms you 



agree upon with labor, you have to 
feed and clothe the laborer and his 
family. Suppose you had double the 
number of laborers, and you employ 
them at the lowest wages, feed and 
clothe ihem and their families, and 
sell your cotton crop at ante-war 
prices, where would be your profits? 

Again, scarcity of labor and high 
prices for cotton give us a monopoly 
of the guano market. Guano, applied 
to crops, at the rate of from eight to 
twelve dollars per acre, will more 
than double the crops — producing 
more than the labor, land, stock and 
machinery, and the cost of the guano 
not much above the loss in machinery, 
mule feed and tools, to say nothing 
about the expenses of the labor. Then, 
think of the difference! By doub- 
ling the number of laborers, without 
guano, you would exhaust and ruin 
the soil. Guano, to produce the same 
amount, will improve the soil in more 
ways than one. Whoever uses guano 
will break his land deeper and pre- 
pare it more thoroughly. 

As I claim to be the first who intro- 
duced guano in the Cotton States, I 
will caution you against over-produc- 
tion of cotton. Use guano and leave 
off immigrants! Produce about two 
million five hundred thousand bales 
only, till priQes above twenty cents 
per pound stimulate a farther in- 
crease. Prepare for a panic by con- 
stant investments in stock, securities 
and machinery, even if not more than 
one hundred dollars annually. It will 
be a beginning. Keep at least six 
months' cash on hand for necessaries, 
that you may not have to force cotton 
sales. Should a cotton panic occur 
now, or after this, it would produce, 
in many cases, starvation. Make all 
your supplies, and the balance of your 
labor in cotton will bring more mon- 
ey than ail would. Every man be- 
lieves this, yet some say. "give us im- 
migrants." If you want to change a 
wrong principle permanently, strike 
at the evil in truth. All the writers 
say, "make your supplies at home, and 
thereby keep your money at home." 
I must admit, I cannot see it in that 
light. IIow can money be kept at 
home, and what good would it do if 
kept there? Money is only valuable 
as the cheapest and most convenient 
medium of exchange. These are my 



72 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



views. The cotton plailt is a great 
power for good, and a rich legacy for 
us. How to mal<e the most of it 
should be serious study and action of 
all. This is the remedy: Do not let 
it come below twenty cents, and, if 
possible, keep it up to twenty-five 
cents. I do not think it to our inter- 
est to carry it beyond that price. How 
is this to be done? Make all your sup- 
plies at home, and you will get the 
same amount of money for the bal- 
ance of the labor that you would get 
for the whole, devoted to cotton. You 
would have less use for money and 
more to put in machinery; and hav- 
ing more resources, you would suffer 
less in any panic. 

Money will go where it can buy 
most, and center where it is worth 
the least rate of interest. A man hav- 
ing money in Europe, where it is 
worth only three per cent., will come 
here for securities at five and six per 
cent. Continued for years, it centers 
all dividends to that point on securi- 
ties. 

Some complain that labor is scarce, 
and a few get all; but they are better 
off under a scarce system than they 
would be under an abundant supply. 
This labor would be worth double; 



whereas, if there was an abundance of 
labor, it would produce cheap exports. 
In this case, none but large and skill- 
ful capitalists could work and feed 
the labor, and it would be the means 
of centering capital in a few hands. 
A man of capital and skill could work 
labor at a profit, when a small capi- 
tal and less skill would lose money. 
What now prevents the land from get- 
ting into a few hands but the fear and 
uncertainty of getting labor? 

I will venture my advice: Hold on 
to your land; plough deep; manure; 
rest; improve your homes; make your 
supplies; save money to invest; and 
finally, when called from the world, 
leave your land to your children, that 
it may support them and their chil- 
dren, as it did you! The cotton plant 
is a power that, if used right, will in 
a short time give us all the capital we 
wish, and make us the creditors of the 
world! Let us strive to be the credi- 
tors. It is a much more preferable 
situation than to be the debtors. Be- 
ware of foreign capital. It will only 
displace your own, and be a growth 
that will ever keep you in the back- 
ground. Very truly, 

DAVID DICKSON. 




Three Profits — 'Milk, IVIeat and IVianure. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Best Extracts trom the Writings ot Dickson. 



1. Never let it be said by posterity, 
tliat it is harder for them to live be- 
cause you lived before them. 

2. An over-estimate as to the prac- 
tical importance of deep and thorough 
breaking of lands for the cultivated 
crops can not be made. 

3. I always consider preparation the 
half, and the heaviest half, of making 
the crop. 

4. I consider it just as deleterious 
to cut the roots of a plant as I would 
to cut the veins of an ox when I have 
him fattening. 

5. The product of the crop will be 
found to be in the ratio of the fertili- 
ty of the soil. 

6. Patriotism says, "make your 
meat and bread at home and be inde- 
pendent." 

7. I have made money by giving my 
land one year in four to gather am- 
monia and humus. 

Ammonia is the foundation of Eng 
lish agriculture. 

With a little ammonia we can 
gather large amounts every year, and 
put it at compound interest. 

8. I believe in natural laws. Study 
nature; trace all things from cause to 
effect, and effect to cause. 

9. There are just as many ways to 
improve land as there are to waste it. 

Nature helps to waste, and helps to 
return. 

10. Providence intended the earth 



to improve in fertility as it increases 
in population. 

11. The richer you make land the 
more you can draw from the atmos- 
phere annually. 

12. If the guano comes in contact 
with the seed you will have a bad 
stand. 

13. Annual manures are preferable; 
they ought to double the investment. 

Soluble bone and Peruvian guano 
will square up accounts with one hun- 
dred per cent, profit. 

14. All vegetable matter placed on 
your fields will, in due time, turn to 
cotton and corn. 

15. Handle manure as little as 
possible; but handle a great deal of 
it. Manure loses every time it is 
turned over and piled. 

IG. Of all manures, ammonia is the 
cheapest and best crop grower, and 
does not exhaust the lands. 

17. The best time to break land for 
planting corn is ten days before plant- 
ing; but the rule is, commence in 
time to break it. 

18. Land must be well broken before 
planting. Commence in time to do 
do it; but the later done — in this lati- 
tude — the better for the land. 

19. A man only gains hard work 
and more of it by very early planting 

20. The word stimulate is improp- 
erly applied to manures; this effect is 
owing to its solubility. 



74 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



21. Be vigilant to save all home- 
made manures possible. 

22. Manipulate your land with vege- 
table mold. 

23. Plough deep, rotate your crops 
and rest your lands. 

24. There is only so much corn and 
cotton in any manure, and the sooner 
you get it the better. 

25. I have made one bushel of corn 
to every fifty-two stalks in the field. 

26. Turn in the weeds, grass, peas 
and clover; make the land mellow. 

27. Plough deep, cultivate shallow, 
and you will have no trouble in grow- 
ing crops. 

28. Clay lands will bear the same 
treatment as sandy lands, and with 
less difficulty. 

29. No matter the color of land, or 
whether sand or clay, keep up a full 
supply of vegetable mold; break up 
deep before planting, cultivate light- 
ly — the result will be good. 

30. Four distinct errors keep plan^ 
ters from making good corn crops — 

1. Not keeping sufficient mold in 
the land. 

2. Ploughing too shallow in prepar- 
ing for the crop. 

3. Planting too thick. 

4. Cultivating too deep. 

Keep your land in good heart. 

Two hundred pounds dissoilved 
bones will produce all the fertilizing 
effects of one thousand pounds of bone 
dust. 

31. To manure land with peas, sow 
the peas the first of July. Drop the 
peas and guano in every third furrow, 
as you break the land. If a good crop 
be made, feed off with stock — other- 
wise turn under. 

32. The true policy is to secure the 
greatest possible amount of soluble 
vegetable mold you can accumulate 
with the least cost. 

33. The true system of manuring is 
to get the manure back the first year, 
with a living profit. 

34. We are only tenants at will, and 
have no right to use the soil in a way 
to destroy its capacity to maintain the 
present population and its future in- 
crease. 



35. Subsoil one-fourth of your land 
every year. 

36. Use the guano on all lands you 
plough or cultivate — or everywhere, 
except in a hole of water or on a 
rock. 

37. Let sandy soils rest to accumu- 
late vegetable mold and fasten the, 
particles of sand together. Rest a 
clay soil for the opposite purpose of 
disintegrating the particles of clay. 

38. Increase the fertility of the soil 
in a greater ratio than the population 
increases. 

39. The use of commercial ferti- 
lizers gives the farmer the means of 
making double the quantity of home- 
made manures. 

40. Success is the only test that will 
do to try a farmer by. 

41. Mr. Dickson has made as high 
as fourteen bales of cotton per hand, 
besides other produce, stock, etc., to 
the market value of $1,000 per hand. 

42. Manuring will not exhaust land, 
if you put back each year more than 
you take from it. 

43. Improve agriculture, so that a 
given quantity of labor may produce 
double what it now does; double the 
capacity of the land. 

44. With poor land but little ma- 
nure will be accumulated without the 
purchase of manures. 

45. That land pays best with guano 
that pays best without it. 

46. Drain wet lands; ditch hill- 
sides; then deepen your soil to the ex- 
tent of your ability. 

47. Humus, clay, and a due propor- 
tion of sand, constitutes the best of 
soil to succeed under all circum- 
stances. 

48. A cotton plant to stand two 
weeks' drought must have four inches 
soil and six inches subsoil; three 
weeks, six inches soil and same sub- 
soiling; four weeks, eight inches and 
same subsoiling, and for every week 
of dry weather, an additional inch, 
with the same six inches subsoiling. 

To stand a ten weeks' drought, 
break the land sixteen inches, and 
six inches subsoil. 

49. Keep your labor at home. 

50. Always come to time. 



EXTRACTS. 



75 



51. It is hard to transfer knowledge, 
and harder to transfer art and judg- 
ment. 

52. The planter should follow the 
laws that govern the universe. 

53. Not only can a living be made 
on poor land, but large fortunes. 

54 By training, hands can do dou- 
ble the amount of work with more 
ease, and less sweat and muscle. 

55. Mr. Dickson's hands used to 
pick three hundred pounds of cotton 
per day, and some as high as seven 
hundred pounds. 

56. The planter should mix his own 
manures, and save the profit of ma- 
nipulating. 

57. Fertilizers bring a crop of bolls 
on the cotton early. 

58. To improve the cotton plant, se- 
lect seed every year, after the first 
picking, up to the middle of October, 
taking the best stalks and the best 
bolls on the stalks. 

59. In selecting the Dickson cotton, 
which is the most prolific cotton of the 
day, select those stalks that send out 
one or more suckers from the ground, 
som(*times called arms. Secondly, 
from those that send limbs thick, with 
three to six bolls, from a half-inch 
to one and a half inches apart on the 
limbs. 

60. On all farms there are some 
acres that produce cotton better than 
others; seed should always be selected 
from those spots. 

61. I do not approve of hill-plant- 
ing; nor would I have a row nearer 
than four feet for cotton. 

62. Leave two or three stalks in 
every hill, the distance of nine inches. 

Cotton planted thick in the drill ma- 
tures and opens earlier. 

Cotton requires distance but one 
way. 

63. As manure, I consider ammonia 
the first, soluble bone the second best, 
salt and plaster good preventives of 
rust in cotton, besides possessing good 
fertilizing properties. 

64. To command nitrogen you must 
have all the necessary salts contained 
in the various plants. 

The more minerals, the more nitro- 
gen you can command. 



The more nitrogen you store away 
in your land, the more you can obtain 
from the atmosphere. 

65. When land begins to tire with 
excess of lime and other minerals, 
sow it down in nitrogenous plants, 
such as peas, clover, etc., and turn 
them under. 

66. I advocate mixing the valuably 
manures, to grow perfect plants; but 
if you use only one, let that be am- 
monia. It is the cheapest and best 
crop grower. 

67. To be successful in agriculture, 
you must know where all the elements 
of plants are, and how to control 
them. 

68. With bull-tongue ploughs, divi- 
dends are impossible. 

69. Do not be afraid of a little clay 
on top, or subsoiling generally. 

One inch of clay each year, over a 
good soil, will do no harm in any land. 

70. If my system of farming is car- 
ried out, there is no use to break the 
ground but once a year. 

71. It requires till the 1st of May to 
do it right, and that is soon enough 
to finish. 

72. Fill your land with humus, to 
stick the sand together and to darken 
it. This will prevent its reflecting 
the heat, and will cause it to receive 
it gradually, and part with it the same 
way. 

With clay lands, do the same thing, 
to make it ploughable at all times. 

73. My system, both with hoe and 
sweep, is to shave off the grass. 

74. You cannot tell till the seasons 
pass over what is the best time to 
plant cotton. 

There is nothing made but hard 
work by planting summer crops in 
the winter. 

75. From the 10th to the 20th April 
is the best time to plant cotton; but 
if you can not plant sooner, plant in 
May. 

76. In 1868 I planted a twenty acre 
lot, finishing the fifth day of May; 
used eight hundred pounds of my com- 
pound per acre. It made thirty-two 
bales. The lint paid a net dividend 
on one thousand dollars or more per 
acre, after paying all expenses, and 



76 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



improving the capital ten per cent, on 
what it would sell for. Including the 
sale of the seed, it paid a dividend on 
four thousand dollars per acre. 

I have no doubt that, on good cotton 
land a fair year, I could make one 
hundred bales cotton, with one No. 1 
mule; commencing operations the 1st 
day of December; subsoil every acre; 
ose twenty-five dollars worth of ma- 
nure per acre, and finish the 1st of 
May; cultivate sixty acres. 

77. Accumulate all manner of labor- 
saving machines; improve your land 
to a capacity double its present rates; 
learn to do fifty per cent, more work 
with the same labor; learn to apply 
your labor to greater advantage, and 
you will find your products ample 
without any increase of population. 

78. Apply one-half of all labor and 
land to the making of full supplies of 
all kinds that are needed on the plan- 
tation, and enough to spare for those 
engaged in other pursuits, and you 
will get more money than if the whole 
was employed in making cotton. 

79. Leave no grass to bunch and 
cause a future bad stand. 

Plough cotton every three weeks, 
and let the hoes come ten days be- 
hind, cleaning it perfectly. 

Continue ploughing cotton till the 
loth or 20th August. 

80. Once or twice during the season 
shove out the middle with one furrow, 
to keep the land level. 

The ploughing of cotton requires 
one and a fourth days per acre. 

81. All land has its capacity, with 
or without manure — greater when ma- 
nured and prepared deep, to sustain 
a certain number of plants. 

82. Cotton plants commence when 
small to take on and mature bolls, 
and continue until they exhaust the 
soluble matter, or reach the full ca- 
pacity of the land. Two stalks will 
do that much sooner than one, and 
will so avoid the late drought, cater- 
pillar, etc. 

83. Eighty bolls of well-cultivated 
and matured cotton will make a 
pound. 

In four feet rows, there will be eight 
stalks per yard and ten bolls on each 
stalk will make three thousand six 



hundred and seventy-five pounds, or 
two bales per acre. 

84. The vegetable mold must be 
kept up to a good standard, approach- 
ing virgin soil. 

Cotton will grow after cotton a 
number of years in succession, with 
plenty of manure. 

85. Rust is nothing but poverty, 
caused by the land being too porous, 
springy, sandy, not regularly worked, 
or want of vegetable mold, potash, etc. 

The remedy is — ^drain the surplus 
water off, close the particles of sand 
or clay with vegetable mold, and the 
use of the "Dickson Compound," with 
the addition of jjotash in some form. 

86. I find where salt an'd plaster 
were used, the cotton has stood the 
drought best, and has less rust. 

87. Make just the amount of cotton 
wanted, at paying prices^ keep out of 
debt, be the creditors, make the most 
of your supplies at home; then, and 
only then, will you have power. 

88. Make the corn for the sake of 
the corn; but when the corn is made 
and hard, and the fodder still green 
and good, pull it off — it will not^hurt 
the corn. 

89. In breaking land, commence at 
the foot of the hill, and circle round 
on a level, and finish on top. 

All litter will be put out of the way, 
and the grass seed covered so deep 
that they can not come up. 

90. Any land will make corn, if 
ploughed and cultivated right. 

91. For cotton, use from four hun- 
dred pounds to eight hundred pounds 
of the compound per acre. The more 
used up to eight hundred pounds, the 
greater will be the profit. 

92. With fifty-six hands, Mr. Dick- 
son made and gathered in 1859, six 
hundred and sixty-seven bales cotton 
— over twelve bales per hand, besides 
one hundred dollars worth per hand 
of corn, bacon, etc., making fifty-five 
thousand dollars. 

93. Mr. Dickson once bought a 
plantation in Washington county, 
\vith the negroes, stock and everything 
complete, and paid for the whole with 
one crop. 

94. Experience has shown that 



EXTRACTS. 



77 



land when cultivated in cotton after 
rest, will produce a healthier weed, 
and will retain water better to keep 
the g_;ano soluble. 

95. The reason that I prefer rest 
succeed small grain is because the 
land is then smooth not open furrows 
to wash, and it is covered with stubble 
and small grass to protect it. 

96. Rotation of crops, deep and 
deeper ploughing every year, incor- 
poration of vegetable mold returning 
the whole proceeds of the cotton plant 
except the lint to the soil, making as 
much manure as possible — comprise 
my system of improving lands. 

97. Large ears of corn are more 
easily gathered than small ones, and 
the same is true of perfect bolls of 
cotton. 

98. Compost manure should be 
spread on the ground, and applied im- 
mediately, so that the decomposition 
shall take place exactly where it is 
wanted. 

99. In manure, as in all other 
things, the great consideration is to 
economize labor; and one of the great 
objects of using commercial manures 
is, that it gives you the means of in- 
creasing your compost. 

100. Almost all flesh and oil are ob- 
tained from the atmosphere. 

101. From every source, let as muc^h 
atmosphere into the land as possible. 

102. In fifteen years, Mr. Dickson 
doubled his capital twenty times by 
planting. 

103. TTie three great cardinal points 
in the Dickson system of farming are 
— deep preparation, thorough manur- 
ing, and surface culture. 

104. To be successful in planting, 
you must study the habits of plants, 
their wants and soil adapted to them. 

10."). The higher the latitude, the 
thicker corn may be planted; but even 
then it may be over-seeded. 

106. The great object of study and 
practice is to know how to vitalize 
the atmosphere, and to work up the 
manures into the soil. 

107. There is no such thing as fail- 
ure, when man does his duty in the 
cultivation. 

108. During the cultivation, the 



rain on the land settles the soil to the 
roots of the plants and enables them 
more completely to draw all the solu- 
ble matter out of the soil. 

109. Where the soil does not reach 
more than from four to ten inches, I 
prefer the common long scooter of 
four to five inches width to subsoil 
with, because it mixes a portion of the 
soil every year with the subsoil. 

110. Breaking must be commenced 
in time to do it full and well by plant- 
ing time; and the better the break- 
ing is done, the easier the land is 
cultivated and the larger the crops. 

111. One of the objects of cultiva- 
tion is to keep the surface broken, so 
as to let in light, heat and air. 

112. One reason why we should have 
a large extent of soil, and depth of 
pulverization, is because the roots are 
many times longer than the limbs or 
stalks, sometimes five or six times 
their length. 

113. All the labor required to culti- 
vate corn is less than one day per 
acre. 

114. Corn manured and cultivate'd on 
my plan will be fully matured before 
the fodder begins to damage, and there 
will be no loss of corn from pulling 
the blades. 

115. How to preserve corn. By 
proper preparation, maturing and cul- 
tivation, the ears will be sound and 
heavy. No other corn can be kept 
long. Use the yellow flint variety. 
Let it thoroughly cure in the field. 
Pull it when dry, about the last of 
November. Put it up in the shuck, 
in a dark tight house and fill the 
house full. 

116. The earlier cotton is planted, 
the lighter it must be covered. 

117. In cultivating cotton never stop 
your ploughs for dry weather. 

118. The hoeing and ploughing of 
cotton, during the cultivation of the 
crop closes up the land sufficiently to 
cause the fruit to set finely. 

119. By Placing the stalks thick in 
the drill, and wide apart, the land is 
kss shaded and gets more light and 
sun. 

"120. When I make a good crop, 1 
always admit a little trash in picking 



78 



DICKSON'S SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



— trashy cotton selling better than 
the blue cotton. 

121. In picking cotton, make but 
one pick at a boll. Pick the odd seeds 
left in the winding up of the season, 
if you have time. 

122. Teach your laborers how to 
work; how to do it with ease and effi- 
ciency; and to do better and better 
work every day. 

123. Save, a portion of your income 
every year, and buy everything for 
cash. 



124. Keep a cash capital equal to 
one year's expenses. 

125. Make all supplies at home that 
can be made. 

126. The cotton planter should 
make his whole supplies — everything 
necessary to run the farm. 

127. Tlie premium cotton crop, ex- 
hibited at the State Fair in Macon, in 
1869, of eighteen bales on six acres, 
was cultivated according to the Dick- 
son plan. 

128. We want system of saving and 
properly investing each year. 




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